Air pollution and its associated health risks before and after COVID-19 in Shaanxi Province, China.
Environ Pollut
; 320: 121090, 2023 Mar 01.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-2309693
ABSTRACT
Air pollution is a serious environmental problem that damages public health. In the present study, we used the segmentation function to improve the health risk-based air quality index (HAQI) and named it new HAQI (NHAQI). To investigate the spatiotemporal distribution characteristics of air pollutants and the associated health risks in Shaanxi Province before (Period I, 2015-2019) and after (Period II, 2020-2021) COVID-19. The six criteria pollutants were analyzed between January 1, 2015, and December 31, 2021, using the air quality index (AQI), aggregate AQI (AAQI), and NHAQI. The results showed that compared with AAQI and NHAQI, AQI underestimated the combined effects of multiple pollutants. The average concentrations of the six criteria pollutants were lower in Period II than in Period I due to reductions in anthropogenic emissions, with the concentrations of PM2.5 (particulate matter ≤2.5 µm diameter), PM10 (PM ≤ 10 µm diameter) SO2, NO2, O3, and CO decreased by 23.5%, 22.5%, 45.7%, 17.6%, 2.9%, and 41.6%, respectively. In Period II, the excess risk and the number of air pollution-related deaths decreased considerably by 46.5% and 49%, respectively. The cumulative population distribution estimated using the NHAQI revealed that 61% of the total number of individuals in Shaanxi Province were exposed to unhealthy air during Period I, whereas this proportion decreased to 16% during Period II. Although overall air quality exhibited substantial improvements, the associated health risks in winter remained high.
Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Air Pollutants
/
Air Pollution
/
COVID-19
Type of study:
Experimental Studies
/
Observational study
/
Prognostic study
Limits:
Humans
Country/Region as subject:
Asia
Language:
English
Journal:
Environ Pollut
Journal subject:
Environmental Health
Year:
2023
Document Type:
Article
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