Investigation of indoor and outdoor air quality in a university campus during COVID-19 lock down period.

The pandemic of COVID-19 currently shadows the world; the whole earth has been on an unprecedented lockdown. Social distancing among people interrupted domestic and international air traffic, suspended industrial productions and economic activities, and had various far-reaching and undetermined implications on air quality. Improvement in air quality has been reported in many cities during the lockdown. On March 22, 2020, the Turkish government enforced strict lockdown measures to reduce coronavirus disease transmission. This lockdown had a significant impact on the movement of people within the country, which resulted in a major drop in worldwide commercial activities. During this period, university campuses were emptied due to the transition to distance education. In this study, various air pollutants sulfur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), ozone (O3), fine particulate matter (PM2.5), total bacteria, and total fungi were measured in different indoor environments at Eskisehir Technical University Campus in Eskisehir, Turkey during COVID-19 lock down period. Also, to calculate the indoor and outdoor ratios (I/O) of the pollutants, simultaneous outdoor measurements were also carried out. The average indoor SO2, NO2, O3, and PM2.5 concentrations in different indoor environments ranged between 2.10 and 54.58, 1.36-30.89, 12.01-39.05, and 21-94 µg/m3, respectively. The total number of bacteria and fungi ranged between 21.83-514.15 and 13.10-83.36 CFU/m3, respectively. Our study intends to give a glimpse to quantify the impact of a pandemic on air quality in different indoor environments in a university campus in Eskisehir, Turkey and calls for follow-up studies. Indoor concentrations were evaluated together with outdoor concentrations. In general, it can be said that the calculated I/O ratios for SO2, NO2, O3, bacteria, and fungi were less than 1 in most indoor environments.

The natural gas consumption and mortality nexus: A mediation analysis

Boosting natural gas consumption can contribute to a healthy China. To examine the link between natural gas consumption and mortality, this study utilizes a balanced panel dataset including 30 Chinese provinces from 2001 to 2019. The fully modified ordinary least squares (FMOLS) method is employed to reveal the long-term cointegration, and the Dumitrescu and Hurlin (D-H) test is further applied to explore the causal relations. Moreover, this study estimates the mediation effects of particulate matter (PM 2.5) emissions on mortality. The empirical results indicate that climbing natural gas consumption can effectively reduce the mortality rate. At the national level, a 1% increase in natural gas consumption leads to a 0.02% decrease in the mortality rate. In addition, the causality analysis uncovers the existence of significant regional heterogeneity. An increase in natural gas consumption will exert a stronger impact in curbing mortality in high gross domestic product (High-GDP) or high natural gas consumption (High-NG) regions. In addition to directly affecting mortality, natural gas consumption also has an indirect impact through the mediation effects of PM 2.5 emissions. Finally, implications for policy and practice are put forward for the Chinese government pertaining to build a healthy China and advance the natural gas industry. • The nexus between natural gas consumption and mortality in China is investigated for 2001–2019. • Natural gas consumption negatively affects mortality rates. • Bidirectional causality link between natural gas consumption and mortality rate is detected. • Natural gas consumption not only directly affects mortality but also indirectly affect mortality by influencing PM 2.5 emissions. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Energy is the property of Pergamon Press - An Imprint of Elsevier Science and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)

Testing the moderating role of trade openness on the environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis: a novel approach.

We explore the moderating role of trade openness (TO) by gauging its main and interaction effects on the economic growth and environmental quality nexus. In this direction, we implement a novel approach by using three different measures of pollution emissions (CO2-CH4-PM2.5) in the environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis and applying a structural equation modelling methodology to 115 countries, grouped into low-, middle- and high-income countries, spanning the period 1992-2018. The evidence suggests that energy consumption has a positive impact on CO2 emissions for all income panels whilst the moderating effect of TO appears to be a key degrading factor of environmental quality in low- and middle-income countries. In addition, TO's interaction with GDP growth is found to negatively affect environmental quality across all income groups. Given that global economies are on the verge of returning to pre-pandemic levels of industrial operations along with emissions in the wake of the failure of COP26 and that COVID-19 has reminded the world the urgency of developing sustainable approaches in fostering 'green economic growth' models; a host of policy measures are proposed in support of this whilst their likely implications are discussed with reference to different income level countries.

Assessment of PM2.5 Chemical Composition and Air Quality Monitoring: Implications of Air Pollutants Emissions from a Night Market in Kaohsiung City, Taiwan

There are around 300 night markets in Taiwan, and they have been drawing an increasing number of tourists in recent years. As a result, public awareness over air quality in the night markets has grown tremendously. In response to this, a specific night market in Kaohsiung City was chosen for this study in order to characterize the existing air quality in and around the night markets. In this present study, we employed an Industrial Source Complex Short-Term (ISCST3) air quality model for the simulation of PM2.5 diffusions. The model as a technique can simulate the pollutants emissions, diffusions, transportation, and pollution sources in specific areas and subsequently evaluate the influence between the source and the receiver. Therefore, we compared pollutants emissions data from several air quality monitoring stations with our sampling data of three different sampling sites in Kaohsiung City. The findings of this study showed that the average concentration of PM2.5 was in the range of 29-61 mu g m(-3) during opening hours of the night market, whereas the average concentration of PM2.5 range was between 22-38 mu g m(-3) before the night market opening hours. The concentration of metallic elements (ME) (Mg, Na, Cr, Mn, Fe, Cu, Al, Ba, Cd, Pb and Ca) was determined with the support of Inductively Coupled Plasma Optical Emission Spectroscopy (ICP-OES). During the night market opening hours, the result disclosed that the ME concentrations in PM2.5 was in an increasing order as follows: Na > Fe > Al > Ca. With respect to the concentration of carbonaceous species, our results showed that the highest total carbon (TC) concentration was found to be 6.52 mu g m(-3) during the downwind sampling interval. The highest elemental carbon (EC) and organic carbon (OC) concentration were found to be 6.53 mu g m(-3) and 2.70 mu g m(-3) of the PM2.5 concentration, respectively. This study's findings have significant consequences for Taiwan policymakers and urban planners, particularly those responsible for coordinating environmental protection and economic development in cities. Therefore, policy actions to abate urban air pollution can be attained on diverse governing echelons, resulting in synergistic effects such as a reduction in climate change impacts.

COVID-19 outbreak and air quality of Lahore, Pakistan: evidence from asymmetric causality analysis.

This paper aims to examine the impact of COVID-19 restrictions on the air quality of Lahore city of Pakistan for the period 26th February, 2020 to 31st August, 2020. The study employs asymmetrical Granger causality tests for analyzing the effects of COVID-19 cases and deaths on particulate matter (PM2.5) emissions in the city. The results show positive shocks in COVID-19 cases and deaths improve the air quality of the city. This implies that the pandemic has lowered down environmental pressure in one of the top most polluted cities of the world. Further, the problem of hazardous air pollution in Lahore city is manmade mainly caused by everyday human activities. When these human activities were restricted owing to a rise in COVID-19 cases and deaths, the air pollution in the city resultantly reduces. Therefore, this study recommends controlling unnecessary production and consumption activities that degrades the environment so that air pollution in the city can be manageable after the COVID-19.

How is COVID-19 affecting environmental pollution in US cities? Evidence from asymmetric Fourier causality test.

This paper aims to examine the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on PM2.5 emissions in eight selected US cities with populations of more than 1 million. To this end, the study employs an asymmetric Fourier causality test for the period of January 15, 2020 to May 4, 2020. The outcomes indicate that positive shocks in COVID-19 deaths cause negative shocks in PM2.5 emissions for New York, San Diego, and San Jose. Moreover, in terms of cases, positive shocks in COVID-19 cause negative shocks in PM2.5 emissions for Los Angeles, Chicago, Phoenix, Philadelphia, San Antonio, and San Jose. Overall, the findings of the study highlight that the pandemic reduces environmental pressure in the largest cities of the USA. This implies that one of the rare positive effects of the virus is to reduce air pollution. Therefore, for a better environment, US citizens should review the impact of current production and consumption activities on anthropogenic environmental problems.