More than 800 deaths may have been avoided due to air quality
improvements during the first lockdown phase in Europe

Date:
January 26, 2022
Source:
London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine
Summary:
Strict COVID-19 lockdown policies such as workplace closures in
European cities reduced levels of air pollution and the number of
associated deaths, according to new estimates.



FULL STORY ========================================================================== Strict COVID-19 lockdown policies such as workplace closures in European
cities reduced levels of air pollution and the number of associated
deaths, according to new estimates published in Nature's Scientific
Reports.


==========================================================================
The research, which was funded by the European Centre for Medium-Range
Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) on behalf of the Copernicus Atmosphere
Monitoring Service (CAMS), was led by a team of statistical health and
earth observation satellite modellers based at the London School of
Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), with colleagues from CAMS.

The study compared government policies from 47 European cities from
February to July 2020 and estimated the changes in pollution levels
and related number of deaths avoided during the first wave of COVID-19 pandemic.

Government measures for COVID-19 such as school and workplace closure, cancelling public events, and stay-at-home requirements had the strongest effect on reducing NO2levels. This is linked to the reduction in road
transport and local mobility which is known to be a contributor to NO2
air pollution.

Spanish, French and Italian cities had the largest decrease in NO2 of
between 50% and 60% during the period.

Although strong decreases in NO2 were observed, levels of fine particulate matter PM2.5 and PM10were reduced more modestly since they are also
produced by natural sources (wildfires and dust), and other emission
sources like residential activities, that were slightly increased during lockdown.

Antonio Gasparrini, Professor of Biostatistics and Epidemiology at LSHTM
and senior author of the study, said: "The lockdown during the first wave
of the COVID-19 pandemic created immense health and social costs, however,
it has offered unique conditions to investigate potential effects of
strict policies to reduce pollution levels in urban areas. This 'natural experiment' has given us a glimpse of how air quality can be improved
by drastic public health measures that would be difficult to implement
in normal times. The information can be important to design effective
policies to tackle the problem of pollution in our cities.



==========================================================================
CAMS provided the surface-level data for this research using an ensemble
of regional air quality models. This allowed the team to compare the concentrations of the main air pollutants with two emissions scenarios,
one corresponding to business-as-usual conditions and the other
corresponding to a detailed estimate of emissions resulting from the
actual governmental measures taken during the first lockdown, varying
for each country, each day and for each of the main activity sectors
(road traffic, industry etc.).

Based on the estimates for NO2, there were 485.5 (confidence interval
of 590.9; 377.6) excess deaths avoided associated with the exposure
change (lockdown - - business-as-usual difference), compared to 2,572.9 (confidence interval of 2,042.3; 3,070.9) excess deaths estimated under
a business-as-usual scenario.

Across all pollutants, a total of more than 800 deaths were avoided with improved air quality resulting from the governmental measures taken to
limit the spread of the SARS-Cov-2 virus. Paris, London, Barcelona,
and Milan were among the top six cities with the highest number of
avoided deaths.

Although all cities experienced a slight increase in air pollution
levels after the strong decline in March and April 2020, levels remained
below business-as- usual scenario estimates throughout the period
studied. Restrictions on internal and international travel showed a
minor impact on the local pollution levels.

Rochelle Schneider, Honorary Assistant Professor in Geospatial Data
Science at LSHTM, Visiting Scientist at ECMWF, and first author of the
study said: "Connecting expertise rapidly after and during the COVID-19 pandemic began has allowed us to estimate the health benefits from
specific government measures.

This, and other similar studies, can help drive the message that we
definitely need to improve urban air quality for human health, and for
the environment." "Government policies decided during the spring and
early summer of 2020 gave us a unique opportunity to study a "real-life" scenario with lower air pollution levels. This paper conveyed strong
messages on the potential of replicable, scalable, and collaborative
research conducted with complementary expertise and knowledge from public health and tropical medicine universities, Copernicus, and meteorological institutes."


========================================================================== Vincent-Henri Peuch, Director of the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring
Service (CAMS), said: "This research benefits from a unique dataset
provided by CAMS, which allows to compare as realistically and
accurately as possible European air quality as it was experienced as
a result of the COVID-19 measures and what would have happened under
normal conditions. This overcomes many limitations of other studies,
which compared for instance different years or different periods. The
CAMS multi-model ensemble that has been used to generate this dataset
has capabilities that have no equivalent in the world." Vincent-Henri
Peuch added: "The findings are extremely significant as they consolidate
the quantitative evidence that the COVID-related government measures
had a direct effect on air pollution levels areas across Europe,
particularly for NO2. Beyond the analysis of the mortality during the
first months of the pandemic, this study could help shape future policy
as the public health benefits of reducing pollution in our cities and
the effectiveness of certain measures are clear to see." The authors acknowledge limitations of the study, including the use of country's
overall response rather than city-specific COVID-19 interventions.

The Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) is implemented by
the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) on behalf
of the European Commission with funding from the European Union.

Notes:
* Air pollution in cities is made up of a mixture of gases (nitrogen
dioxide [NO2], ozone [O3]) and particulate matter [PM2.5 and PM10]).

* The CAMS regional air quality forecast system simulates the
concentration
of four pollutants under both scenarios during the same period and
in identical weather conditions. The models not only account for
the influence of weather variability, but also complex atmospheric
processes and chemical interactions of multiple pollutants. CAMS
consistently monitors air quality in Europe and around the world
using satellite and ground-based observations with advanced
numerical computer models and provides information in the context
of the COVID-19 pandemic via a dedicated microsite.

special promotion Explore the latest scientific research on sleep and
dreams in this free online course from New Scientist -- Sign_up_now_>>> ========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by London_School_of_Hygiene_&_Tropical_Medicine. Note: Content may be edited
for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Rochelle Schneider, Pierre Masselot, Ana M. Vicedo-Cabrera,
Francesco
Sera, Marta Blangiardo, Chiara Forlani, John Douros, Oriol Jorba,
Mario Adani, Rostislav Kouznetsov, Florian Couvidat, Joaquim Arteta,
Blandine Raux, Marc Guevara, Augustin Colette, Je'ro^me Barre',
Vincent-Henri Peuch, Antonio Gasparrini. Differential impact of
government lockdown policies on reducing air pollution levels
and related mortality in Europe. Scientific Reports, 2022; 12 (1)
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-04277-6 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/01/220126090513.htm

--- up 7 weeks, 4 days, 7 hours, 13 minutes
* Origin: -=> Castle Rock BBS <=- Now Husky HPT Powered! (1:317/3)