Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2020 Nov;266(Pt 1):115042.
doi: 10.1016/j.envpol.2020.115042. Epub 2020 Jul 3.

Air quality during the COVID-19: PM2.5 analysis in the 50 most polluted capital cities in the world

Daniella Rodríguez-Urrego  1 , Leonardo Rodríguez-Urrego  2
Affiliations
Review

Air quality during the COVID-19: PM2.5 analysis in the 50 most polluted capital cities in the world

Daniella Rodríguez-Urrego et al. Environ Pollut. 2020 Nov.

Abstract

On December 31, 2019, the Chinese authorities reported to the World Health Organization (WHO) the outbreak of a new strain of coronavirus that causes a serious disease in the city of Wuhan, China. This outbreak was classified as SARS-CoV2 and is the cause of the COVID-19 disease. On March 11, 2020, the WHO declares it a Pandemic and today it is considered the greatest challenge in global health that humanity has faced since World War II and it is estimated that between 40 and 60% of the population worldwide will catch the virus. This has caused enormous challenges in countries around the world in social, economic, environmental and obviously health issues. These challenges are mainly due to the effects of the established quarantines in almost all capitals and major cities around the world, from Asia, Europe to America. However, these lockdown which began worldwide from January 23, have had a significant impact on the environment and on the air quality of cities as recently reported by NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) and ESA (European Space Agency), with reductions according to them of up to 30% in some of the epicenters such as the case of Wuhan. Knowing that air pollution causes approximately 29% of lung cancer deaths, 43% of COPD deaths, and 25% of ischemic heart disease deaths, it is important to know the effects of quarantines in cities regarding air quality to take measures that favor populations and urban ecosystems when the emergency ends. Therefore, this paper describes the behavior of PM2.5 emissions particulate matter from the 50 most polluted capital cities in the world according to the WHO, measured before-after the start of the quarantine. Likewise, the impact at the local and global level of this emissions behavior, which averaged 12% of PM2.5 decrease in these cities.

Keywords: Air pollutant emissions; Capital cities; Environmental pollution; PM(2.5).

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Figures

Image 1
Graphical abstract
Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Capital cities Ankara, Astana, Bangkok, Beijing, Colombo, Delhi, Dhaka, Kabul and Hanoi, PM2.5 levels before and during quarantine (WAQ Index, 2020).
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Capital cities Jakarta, Kathmandu, Kubait city, Ulaanbaatar, Tashkent, Tehran, Tel Aviv, Tokio and Singapore PM2.5 levels before and during quarantine (WAQ Index, 2020).
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Capital cities Belgrade, Bern, Bratislavia, Brussels, Budapest, Cyprus, Kyiv, Lisbon and London PM2.5 levels before and during quarantine (WAQ Index, 2020).
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Capital cities Paris, Prague, Pristina, Sarajevo, Skopje, Vienna, Vilnius and Warsaw PM2.5 levels before and during quarantine (WAQ Index, 2020).
Fig. 5
Fig. 5
Capital cities Bogotá, Lima, Mexico City, Santiago de Chile and Kampala (Africa) PM2.5 levels before and during quarantine (WAQ Index, 2020).
Fig. 6
Fig. 6
Population vs Environmental stations.
Fig. 7
Fig. 7
PM2.5 Reduction in quarantine week.
Fig. 8
Fig. 8
Weekly average without quarantine vs weekly average with quarantine.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Agency G.E. 2020. Umweltbundesamt | for Our Environment [WWW Document]https://www.umweltbundesamt.de/en/data/air/air-data/air-quality/eJzrWJSS... accessed 6.5.20.
    1. Anandsaikhan N. 2020. Mongolia Finds a Silver Living in the COVID-19 Crisis – the Diplomat [WWW Document]https://thediplomat.com/2020/04/mongolia-finds-a-silver-living-in-the-co... accessed 4.27.20.
    1. BalkanInsight . 2020. Serbia, North Macedonia Impose Harsh Weekend Curfews | Balkan Insight [WWW Document]https://balkaninsight.com/2020/04/10/serbia-north-macedonia-impose-harsh... accessed 4.27.20.
    1. BBC News Mundo . 2020. Coronavirus in China: Wuhan’s Plan to Quarantine the Covid-19 Pandemic [WWW Document]https://www.bbc.com/mundo/noticias-internacional-52040027 accessed 4.27.20.
    1. Cachon B.F., Firmin S., Verdin A., Ayi-Fanou L., Billet S., Cazier F., Martin P.J., Aissi F., Courcot D., Sanni A., Shirali P. Proinflammatory effects and oxidative stress within human bronchial epithelial cells exposed to atmospheric particulate matter (PM2.5 and PM>2.5) collected from Cotonou, Benin. Environ. Pollut. 2014;185:340–351. doi: 10.1016/J.ENVPOL.2013.10.026. - DOI - PubMed