Increased tropospheric ozone levels as a public health issue during COVID-19 lockdown and estimation the related pulmonary diseases

Atmospheric Pollution Research

article

Khatereh Anbari¹  Yusef Omidi Khaniabadi²  Pierre Sicard³  Hasan Raja Naqvi⁴  Rajab Rashidi⁵ 

[1] Social Determinants of Health Research Center, School of Medicine, Lorestan University of Medical Sciences;Occupational and Environmental Health Research Center, Petroleum Industry Health Organization;ARGANS;Department of Geography, Faculty of Natural Sciences;Department of Occupational Health, Nutritional Health Research Center, School of Health and Nutrition, Lorestan University of Medical Sciences

关键词: Air pollution;    COVID-19;    Health effect;    O 3;    Mortality;   

DOI  :  10.1016/j.apr.2022.101600

学科分类：农业科学（综合）

来源: Dokuz Eylul Universitesi * Department of Environmental Engineering

【 摘 要 】

The aims of this study were to i) investigate the variation of tropospheric ozone (O 3 ) levels during the COVID-19 lockdown; ii) determine the relationships between O 3 concentrations with the number of COVID-19 cases; and iii) estimate the O 3 -related health effects in Southwestern Iran (Khorramabad) over the time period 2019–2021. The hourly O 3 data were collected from ground monitoring stations, as well as retrieved from Sentinel-5 satellite data for showing the changes in O 3 levels pre, during, and after lockdown period. The concentration-response function model was applied using relative risk (RR) values and baseline incidence (BI) to assess the O 3 -related health effects. Compared to 2019, the annual O 3 mean concentrations increased by 12.2% in 2020 and declined by 3.9% in 2021. The spatiotemporal changes showed a significant O 3 increase during COVID-19 lockdown, and a negative correlation between O 3 levels and the number of COVID-19 cases was found (r = − 0.59, p < 0.05). In 2020, the number of hospital admissions for cardiovascular diseases increased by 4.0 per 10 5 cases, the mortality for respiratory diseases increased by 0.7 per 10 5 cases, and the long-term mortality for respiratory diseases increased by 0.9 per 10 5 cases. Policy decisions are now required to reduce the surface O 3 concentrations and O 3 -related health effects in Iran.

【 授权许可】

CC BY