ABSTRACT
Noise pollution is becoming a critical health risk for city life. In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic forced many cities to implement several mobility restrictions. These restrictions changed human activity patterns and decreased the noise levels and noise pollution that often affect urban settings. As the number of infections decreased, so did the outdoor activities, influencing the population's perception of noise. This paper aims to evaluate the changes in noise levels associated with mobility restrictions between 2020 and 2021 in Guayaquil, Ecuador. This study used crowdsourcing with the help of smartphones and mobile applications to collect geo-referenced environmental noise data. The data was used to generate noise maps in different time frames. Finally, noise level maps were created using GIS-based tools to identify the urban areas that experienced the highest noise level variation during the study period. The results show that the most significant noise increase occurred at night. Furthermore, when analyzing noise level changes in different urban areas, the western area of Guayaquil was the one that experienced the most significant noise level variation. Findings inform the perception of noise pollution and could potentially serve as a reference for decision-makers during the proposal of public policies that ensure a better quality of life for its citizens. © 2023 The Authors
ABSTRACT
Handwashing is one of the vital public health measures. It helps to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, water overuse during hand scrubbing with soap keeping the tap on may put enormous pressure on the already overstretched groundwater resources and households' economic well-being. Therefore, this study aimed to determine the overuse of water while scrubbing hands with soap for handwashing when the tap is on amid the COVID-19 pandemic in Bangladesh. Sociodemographic data were collected using a web-based survey tool among 1980 participants and an experiment was conducted among 126 participants to estimate the overuse of water during hand scrubbing while the tap is on. A total of 80% of the participants washed their hands regularly after returning home from outside. About 57.3% of participants did not turn off their tap throughout the handwashing process. A single participant, who kept his tap on throughout the handwashing process, overused approximately 1.7 L of water per handwash and 14.9 L of water per day. Hand scrubbing with soap keeping the tap on, raised the overuse of water 13-fold during this pandemic compared to the non-pandemic situation which cost an extra 225.0 BDT (2.7$) per day for 1980 participants. Minimize the speed of tap, using automatic taps, and using taps operated by legs might be an effective solution to reduce the water overuse. Furthermore, behavioral change interventions are needed to aware people turn off the tap during hand scrubbing with soap.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND AND INTRODUCTION: Donning and doffing of personal protective equipments (PPE) has become relevant especially during COVID-19 pandemic and neurosurgeons operating upon COVID-19 positive or suspect patients should be aware of proper technique of donning and doffing of PPE.[1] Surgeries involving direct exposure of anterior nasal spaces/paranasal sinuses carry significantly more risk of infection and it may be prudent to use PPE while operating all such cases.[2]. OBJECTIVE: In this video, we present our extensive protocol of donning and doffing of PPE which we have devised for our operating room. TECHNIQUE: Donning consists of wearing of the PPE in a proper sequence so as to afford maximal protection from viral infection while conducting the surgical procedure. Various components of PPE and procedure of donning is shown followed by doffing, the sequential and safe removal of the PPE. RESULTS: A meticulous method of donning and doffing PPE for neurosurgeons handling COVID-19 positive / suspect cases has been shown . CONCLUSION: Proper sequence of donning and doffing of PPE gear is of crucial importance during the COVID pandemic to prevent infection to the health care workers while handling COVID-19 positive/suspect cases and this video demonstrates the protocol we use at our institute.