Air Quality Variation in Wuhan, Daegu, and Tokyo during the Explosive Outbreak of COVID-19 and Its Health Effects.

Chang-Jin Ma,Gong-Unn Kang

doi:10.3390/ijerph17114119

Abstract

This study was designed to assess the variation of the air quality actually measured from the air pollution monitoring stations (AQMS) in three cities (Wuhan, Daegu, and Tokyo), in Asian countries experiencing the explosive outbreak of COVID-19, in a short period of time. In addition, we made a new attempt to calculate the reduced DosePM2.5 (μg) at the bronchiolar (Br.) and alveolar-interstitial (AI) regions of the 10-year-old children after the city lockdown/self-reflection of each city. A comparison of the average PM2.5 of a month before and after the lockdown (Wuhan) and self-reflection (Daegu and Tokyo) clearly shows that the PM2.5 concentration was decreased by 29.9, 20.9, and 3.6% in Wuhan, Daegu and Tokyo, respectively. Wuhan, Daegu and Tokyo also recorded 53.2, 19.0, and 10.4% falls of NO2 concentration, respectively. Wuhan, which had the largest decrease of PM2.5 concentration due to COVID-19, also marked the largest reduced DosePM2.5 10-year-old children (μg) (3660 μg at Br. and 6222 μg at AI), followed by Daegu (445 μg at Br. and 1287 μg at AI), and Tokyo (18 μg at Br. and 52 μg at AI), over two months after the city lockdown/self-reflection. Our results suggest that the city lockdown/self-reflection had the effect of lowering the concentration of PM2.5, resulting in an extension of the period it took to the acute allergic airway inflammation (AAI) for the 10-year-old children.

Highlights

Since the initial report of cases in Wuhan, China, on 31 December 2019, the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) spread worldwide in a short period of time and is still in progress [1]
Our results suggest that the city lockdown/self-reflection had the effect of lowering the concentration of PM2.5, resulting in an extension of the period it took to the acute allergic airway inflammation (AAI) for the
Unlike Tokyo, where the concentration was not high before the self-restraint regulation, there was Unlike Tokyo, where the concentration was not high before the self-restraint regulation, there a clear reduction in the PM2.5 concentration in Wuhan and Daegu

Summary

Introduction

Since the initial report of cases in Wuhan (see Figure 1), China, on 31 December 2019, the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) spread worldwide in a short period of time and is still in progress [1]. 4,445,920 confirmed cases were reported in 213 countries and 298,440 people have died so far from the COVID-19 outbreak, as of 14 May 2020 [2]. In response to the rapid increase in the COVID-19 case, the Chinese administrative authorities have sealed off the entire city of Wuhan. To prevent the spread of COVID-19, they closed various educational institutions and established numerous quarantines [3]. In the case of Daegu Metropolitan City, South Korea, the number of cases sharply increased at the time when the number of confirmed cases of Wuhan was on the decline

Methods

Results

Conclusion