[Cross-sectional study on the use of masks among occupational groups with high-risk positions for overseas import and pollution transmission].

Objective: To investigate the wearing of masks and the knowledge of masks among high-risk positions for overseas import and pollution transmission. Methods: From May 14 to 17, 2022, a convenient sampling method was used to conduct an online survey among 963 workers in high-risk positions for overseas import and pollution transmission in Beijing. The behaviors of individual use and wearing masks, the distribution and supervision of the unit, the knowledge of personal mask protection and the subjective feelings of wearing masks were analyzed. The χ(2) test and logistic regression model were used to analyze the influencing factors of the correct selection of masks. Results: The majority of the workers in high-risk positions for overseas import and pollution transmission were male (86.0%, 828/963), age concentration in 18-44 years old (68.2%, 657/963), and the majority of them had college or bachelor degrees (49.4%, 476/963). 79.4%(765/963) of the workers chose the right type of masks, female, 45-59 years old and high school education or above were the risk factors for correct selection of masks (P <0.05). Workers had good behaviors such as wearing/removing masks, but only 10.5% (101/963) could correctly rank the protective effect of different masks. 98.4% (948/963) of the workers believed that their work units had provided masks to their employees, and 99.1% (954/963) and 98.2%(946/963) of them had organized training and supervision on the use of masks, respectively. 47.4%(456/963) of the workers were uncomfortable while wearing masks. Conclusion: The overall selection and use of masks among occupational groups in high-risk positions for overseas import and pollution transmission in China need to be further standardized. It is necessary to strengthen supervision and inspection on the use of masks among occupational groups, and take improvement measures to improve the comfort of wearing masks.

The Reduction of SARS-CoV-2 RNA Concentration in the Presence of Sewer Biofilms

Wastewater surveillance has been widely used to track the prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 in communities. Although some studies have investigated the decay of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in wastewater, understanding about its fate during wastewater transport in real sewers is still limited. This study aims to assess the impact of sewer biofilms on the dynamics of SARS-CoV-2 RNA concentration in naturally contaminated real wastewater (raw influent wastewater without extra SARS-CoV-2 virus/gene seeding) using a simulated laboratory-scale sewer system. The results indicated that, with the sewer biofilms, a 90% concentration reduction of the SARS-CoV-2 RNA was observed within 2 h both in wastewater of gravity (GS, gravity-driven sewers) and rising main (RM, pressurized sewers) sewer reactors. In contrast, the 90% reduction time was 8–26 h in control reactors without biofilms. The concentration reduction of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in wastewater was significantly more in the presence of sewer biofilms. In addition, an accumulation of c.a. 260 and 110 genome copies/cm2 of the SARS-CoV-2 E gene was observed in the sewer biofilm samples from RM and GS reactors within 12 h, respectively. These results confirmed that the in-sewer concentration reduction of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in wastewater was likely caused by the partition to sewer biofilms. The need to investigate the in-sewer dynamic of SARS-CoV-2 RNA, such as the variation of RNA concentration in influent wastewater caused by biofilm attachment and detachment, was highlighted by the significantly enhanced reduction rate of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in wastewater of sewer biofilm reactors and the accumulation of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in sewer biofilms. Further research should be conducted to investigate the in-sewer transportation of SARS-CoV-2 and their RNA and evaluate the role of sewer biofilms in leading to underestimates of COVID-19 prevalence in communities.

The Impact of COVID-19 Lockdown on Ambient Air Quality in Shanghai, 2022

The COVID-19 lockdown contributes to the improvement of air quality. Most previous studies have attributed this to the reduction of human activity while ignoring the meteorological changes, this may lead to an overestimation or underestimation of the impact of COVID-19 lockdown measures on air pollution levels. To investigate this issue, we propose an XGBoost-based model to predict the concentrations of PM2.5 and PM10 during the COVID-19 lockdown period in 2022, Shanghai, and thus explore the limits of anthropogenic emission on air pollution levels by comprehensively employing the meteorological factors and the concentrations of other air pollutants. Results demonstrate that actual observations of PM2.5 and PM10 during the COVID-19 lockdown period were reduced by 60.81% and 43.12% compared with the predicted values (regarded as the period without the lockdown measures). In addition, by comparing with the time series prediction results without considering meteorological factors, the actual observations of PM2.5 and PM10 during the lockdown period were reduced by 50.20% and 19.06%, respectively, against the predicted values during the non-lockdown period. The analysis results indicate that ignoring meteorological factors will underestimate the positive impact of COVID-19 lockdown measures on air quality. © 2023 by the authors.

We Breathe, Therefore, We Are: The Gasp of Life

The rise of breathlessness is directly linked to COVID-19, to climate change due to air quality from pollution and to anxious experience. This chapter's phenomenology of breathlessness and anxiety show on the one hand how insidious yet more and more prevalent these experiences are becoming, regardless of the specific disease and more of an expression of climate change. On the other hand, the rise of COVID-19 poses a particular threat quite apart from the fact it is a consequence of the way that we treat nature. This is because it is spread through close personal contact with other humans, specifically through inspiration of their breath. The threat posed by this new disease means that our very way of being with others will be altered profoundly. Studies show that breathlessness from COVID-19 is worsened by climate change as areas of high pollution put more and more people at risk. This pandemic shows our fundamental reliance on the Earth, writ large. The dire consequences of humanity's damaging treatment of the planet are a stark reminder of this. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022.

Impact of Particulate Matter on Pre- and Post-Covid Lockdown in the Wards of Urban Jaipur

The impact of air pollutants on human health is a major issue that developing nations are facing in last decade. Effect of particulate matter especially PM2.5 and PM10 has been severely affecting mortality and morbidity in Rajasthan state as per global lead medical journal Lancet recent publication. Twelve air pollutant-monitoring sta tions in Jaipur city are not enough to predict the exact concentration of air pollutants in each of the 91 wards of Jaipur. In absence of accurate concentration at micro level, it becomes a major challenge for urban planners to remedial strategies. In this paper through GIS spatial distribution, a comparative study of particulate matter at each of the 91 wards during pre-lockdown for the year 2019 and post-lockdown 2020 was done. Results for 2020 showed slightly less pollution;similarly, air purity index, an indicator for healthier environment, was determined for each ward. © 2023 Scientific Publishers. All rights reserved.

Collaborative mapping of the noise level in Guayaquil during COVID-19

The SARS-CoV-2 virus triggered a never-before-seen scenario worldwide. Ecuador declared a state of emergency to contain coronavirus transmission by applying social isolation policies and mobility limitations. During this period, noise pollution decreased in Guayaquil city. This study proposes the use of smartphones to collect noise data and generate soundscape maps of Guayaquil during different time slots. The results revealed traffic as the predominant type of noise, followed by vehicles, buses, and people´s voices. This article demonstrates the feasibility of crowdsourcing for the collection of environmental variables. © 2022 National Institute for Space Research, INPE. All rights reserved.

Research on the Optimal Energy Saving and Emission Reduction Path for Promoting High-Quality Industrial Development in Hubei Province

In December 2019, a novel coronavirus broke out in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, and, as the center of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) epidemic, the economy and production throughout Hubei Province suffered huge temporary impacts. Based on the input–output and industrial pollution emissions data of 33 industrial industries in Hubei from 2010 to 2019, this article uses the non-parametric frontier analysis method to calculate the potential production losses and compliance costs caused by environmental regulations in Hubei's industrial sector by year and industry. Research has found that the environmental technology efficiency of the industrial sector in Hubei is showing a trend of increasing year-on-year, but the overall efficiency level is still not high, and there is great room for improvement. The calculation results with and without environmental regulatory constraints indicate that, generally, production losses and compliance costs may be encountered in the industrial sector in Hubei, and there are significant differences by industry. The potential production losses and compliance costs in pollution-intensive industries are higher than those in clean production industries. On this basis, we propose relevant policy recommendations to improve the technological efficiency of Hubei's industrial environment, in order to promote the high-quality development of Hubei's industry in the post-epidemic era.

Quantifying the impact of meteorological factors and green infrastructure location on particulate matter (PM) mitigation in North Macedonia using sensor collected data

Low quality of the air is becoming a major concern in urban areas. High values of particulate matter (PM) concentrations and various pollutants may be very dangerous for human health and the global environment. The challenge to overcome the problem with the air quality includes efforts to improve healthy air not only by reducing emissions, but also by modifying the urban morphology to reduce the exposure of the population to air pollution. The aim of this contribution is to analyse the influence of the green zones on air quality mitigation through sensor measurements, and to identify the correlation with the meteorological factors. Actually, the objective focuses on identifying the most significant correlation between PM2.5 and PM10 concentrations and the wind speed, as well as a negative correlation between the PM concentrations and wind speed across different measurement locations. Additionally, the estimation of slight correlation between the PM concentrations and the real feel temperature is detected, while insignificant correlations are found between the PM concentrations and the actual temperature, pressure, and humidity. In this paper the effect of the pandemic restriction rules COVID-19 lockdowns and the period without restriction are investigated. The sensor data collected before the pandemic (summer months in 2018), during the global pandemic (summer months 2020), and after the period with restriction measures (2022) are analysed.

Neighborhood-Level Particle Pollution Assessment during the COVID-19 Pandemic via a Novel IoT Solution

In recent years, the concentration levels of various air pollutants have been constantly increasing, primarily due to the high vehicle flow. In 2020, however, severe lockdowns in Greece were imposed to reduce the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to a rapid reduction in the concentration levels of air pollutants such as PM2.5 and PM10 in the atmosphere. Initially, this paper seeks to identify the correlation between the concentration levels of PM10 and the traffic flow by acquiring data from low-cost IoT devices which were placed in Thessaloniki, Greece, from March to August 2020. The correlation and the linearity between the two parameters were further investigated by applying descriptive analytics, regression techniques, Pearson correlation, and independent T-testing. The obtained results indicate that the concentration levels of PM10 are strongly correlated to the vehicle flow. Therefore, the results hint that the decrease in the vehicle flow could result in improving the quality of environmental air. Finally, the acquired results point out that the temperature and humidity are weakly correlated with the concentration levels of PM10 present in the atmosphere.

Micro plastic: an imperceptible threat on Agua Dulce Beach, Chorrillos District

The use of plastics in the world is increasing, but their proper final arrangement is limited. Peru made regulatory efforts to reduce its use;however, they are isolated activities that have not represented a significant change in their management. This study allows to identify the presence of microplastic on one of the busiest beaches of the city of Lima Metropolitana, during the emergency period caused by the SARS-COV-2 pandemic. To achieve the objectives of the research, it has been sampled in high tide and supra-coastal areas, applying the methodology proposed in the Ministry of the Environment's Soil Sampling Guide. This study shows the presence of microplastics, with an abundance of 43 pieces per m2, and found that the predominance of the type of microplastic found is of secondary origin (polystyrene and polypropylene);however, 20.9% correspond to primary microplastics (pellets) whose source could not be determined. Finally, it is indicated that despite restrictions on the state of emergency the number of microplastics per m2 in Agua Dulce Beach between 2019 (40 pieces) and 2020 (43 pieces) increased by 7.5%.

Evaluation of air quality and its variation due to COVID-19 lockdown in Hyderabad, Telangana, India

Air pollution in India is a serious health issue. A countrywide lockdown was imposed in India in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, firstly for three weeks starting from March 24 to April 14, 2020, and then extended until May 3, 2020. Because of the restrictions imposed, pollution levels in cities all over the country have dropped dramatically in just a few days, raised questions among scientists about lockdown as the most effective alternative approach for reducing air pollution. Hyderabad was chosen for this study because it is India's 5th largest city by area and 4th largest city by population, as well as major industrial centre in South-East Asia with strong air quality statistics. In light of the recent COVID-19 outbreak around the country, a detailed analysis based on air quality parameters from six distinct air quality monitoring sites in Hyderabad, Telangana, has been performed. For simple interpretation of air quality data, establishing a correlation between different pollutants, identifying sources of pollution, and determining the most significant parameters, different multivariate statistical approaches such as Cluster analysis (CA), Principle component analysis (PCA), correlation analysis, and multiple linear regression analysis (MLR) were used. The aim of this study is to evaluate the major air pollution sources in Hyderabad and to identify the most significant air pollutants based on their individual contributions to the Air Quality Index (AQI). Variation in air quality parameters collected for six air quality monitoring stations were represented using box or whisker plots. The data set has been grouped into four major clusters depending on the similarities in the air quality data. Major sources of air pollution in each cluster were identified using PCA. MLR analysis was used to create models for predicting AQI for each cluster based on concentrations of important air contaminants. The findings revealed that PM10 and PM2.5 play a significant role in determining AQI levels. © 2023 Author(s).

How to read a paper about inequality in respiratory disease: Basic epidemiological principles and how inequalities are measured

Health inequalities in respiratory disease are widespread, and monitoring them is important for advocacy, the design and delivery of health services, and informing wider health policy. In this chapter, we introduce the different ways in which health inequalities can be quantified, including measures that quantify absolute and relative inequalities, and those that measure gaps between groups or differences across the entire social gradient. We consider the strengths and limitations of these different approaches and highlight things to look out for when reading a paper on health inequalities in respiratory health. These include how common the outcome is and whether other factors have been adjusted for, as both can have a crucial impact on interpretation and can lead to misleading conclusions.Copyright © ERS 2023.

Microplastic pollution in the polar oceans-A review

Microplastic pollution is a global environmental threat. This problem is now the order of the day in everyone's eyes, leading to environmental and health challenges for the ecosystem. A plastic ban was implemented, but as the COVID-19 pandemic began, multiple needs for plastic materials arose. This resulted in the growth of worldwide plastic pollution, which has even reached remote polar regions. This chapter focuses on microplastic pollution in the polar oceans, such as the Antarctic and Arctic regions. The aim is to describe the microplastics reports underpinning the polar regions, summarize the acquired knowledge, and highlight the need for future perspectives. © 2023 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Getting to the STEM of Environmental Justice: Equity Causes Enrich Student Learning in Science Classrooms

From satellites to ground-based sensors, as well as mobile networks of monitors, the availability of massive data sets has increased the need for educating students in data literacy in order to ensure their competency in the global market (Bluhm et al. 2020;Gibson and Mourad 2018). The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) defines environmental justice as, "... the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income, with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies." According to Lacombe, more individuals die yearly from car exhaust (53,000) in the United States than road casualties (37,400). Students worked in groups to discuss their assumptions about factors they perceived to have an impact on air pollution levels (e.g., affluence, traffic, and vegetation).

Silent superbug killers in a river near you how factory farms contaminate public water courses on three continents

Water downstream from factory farms harbours an invisible threat to people's health which could eclipse the COVID-19 crisis. The threat? Antibiotic Resistance Genes (ARGs) which are driving antimicrobial resistance the world's superbug crisis - projected to kill up to 10 million people annually by 2050. This publication reports the presence of ARGs in animal waste discharged from industrial farms into public waterways or onto soil (or crops) in four countries. Gauge community impact and sentiment regarding the issue was also highlighted. The water and sediment from public water courses connected to effluent discharges from 6-10 pig farms were tested in each of four countries (Canada, Spain, Thailand and the USA).

Can We Detect Urban‐Scale CO2 Emission Changes Within Medium‐Sized Cities?

The COVID‐19 pandemic resulted in a widespread lockdown during the spring of 2020. Measurements collected on a light rail system in the Salt Lake Valley (SLV), combined with observations from the Utah Urban Carbon Dioxide Network observed a notable decrease in urban CO2 concentrations during the spring of 2020 relative to previous years. These decreases coincided with a ∼30% reduction in average traffic volume. CO2 measurements across the SLV were used within a Bayesian inverse model to spatially allocate anthropogenic emission reductions for the first COVID‐19 lockdown. The inverse model was first used to constrain anthropogenic emissions for the previous year (2019) to provide the best possible estimate of emissions for 2020, before accounting for emission reductions observed during the COVID‐19 lockdown. The posterior emissions for 2019 were then used as the prior emission estimate for the 2020 COVID‐19 lockdown analysis. Results from the inverse analysis suggest that the SLV observed a 20% decrease in afternoon CO2 emissions from March to April 2020 (−90.5 tC hr−1). The largest reductions in CO2 emissions were centered over the northern part of the valley (downtown Salt Lake City), near major roadways, and potentially at industrial point sources. These results demonstrate that CO2 monitoring networks can track reductions in CO2 emissions even in medium‐sized cities like Salt Lake City.Alternate :Plain Language SummaryHigh‐density measurements of CO2 were combined with a statistical model to estimate emission reductions across Salt Lake City during the COVID‐19 lockdown. Reduced traffic throughout the COVID‐19 lockdown was likely the primary driver behind lower CO2 emissions in Salt Lake City. There was also evidence that industrial‐based emission sources may of had an observable decrease in CO2 emissions during the lockdown. Finally, this analysis suggests that high‐density CO2 monitoring networks could be used to track progress toward decarbonization in the future.

Air Pollutants and Their Impact on Chronic Diseases—A Retrospective Study in Bucharest, Romania

Air pollution is a serious problem in Romania, with the country ranking 13th among the most polluted countries in Europe in the 2021 World Air Quality Report. Despite the recognized impact of pollutants on health, there has been a lack of large-scale studies conducted in Romania. This study investigated the impact of air pollutants on patients with chronic respiratory, cardiovascular, cerebrovascular, or metabolic diseases in Bucharest and its metropolitan area from 20 August 2018 to 1 June 2022. The daily limit values for particulate matter PM10 and PM2.5 were exceeded every month, especially during the cold season, with a decrease during the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions. A significant statistical correlation was found between the monthly average values of PM2.5 and PM10 and hospitalizations for respiratory and cardiovascular diseases. A 10 µg/m3 increase in monthly average values resulted in a 40–60% increase in admissions for each type of pathology, translating to more than 2000 admissions for each pathology for the study period. This study highlights the urgent need for national and local measures to ensure a cleaner environment and enhance public health in Romania according to international regulations. © 2023 by the authors.

Exploring Plastic-Management Policy in China: Status, Challenges and Policy Insights

Plastic pollution is recognized as one of the most urgent global environmental concerns. China is the top producer and consumer of plastics and creates the most plastic waste globally. To evaluate policy options to control plastic pollution in China, we first reviewed the relevant policies and action plans in place. Then, we examined plastic-material flows and changes at the national level based on officially published data to evaluate the current situation and efficacy of policies at the macro-level. Results showed that 2016, the start of the 13th Five-Year Plan, was a pivotal year in the history of China's plastic policies tackling plastic issues nationally and internationally. Since 2016, the growth trend in the production and consumption of plastic products has slowed and the recycling rate has risen, surpassing 30% in 2021. To further tackle plastic pollution, key suggestions with important policy implications were provided, covering better integration of policies, the combined management of vertical–horizontal governance, tracking-system implementation, the introduction of a quality-certification system, the development of behaviour-based consumer-oriented solutions, the promotion of stakeholder collaboration, and the need for appropriate post-COVID-19 policies.