Dear Pawan,

Due to climate change and other factors, air pollution patterns are changing in several urbanised areas of the world, with a significant effect on respiratory health both independently and synergistically with weather conditions. More intense extreme events are projected under future climate change. However, the impacts of climate extremes on future air quality and associated health implications are not well recognized. Here are some useful articles:

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2020.00014/full

Article Environmental and Health Impacts of Air Pollution: A Review

https://ec.europa.eu/environment/integration/research/newsalert/pdf/24si_en.pdf

Regarding data you can check this one:

https://www.who.int/gho/database/en/

Thanks

Ankur

I suggest the BenMAP platform from US EPA. The WHO also have a platform for health estimations (AirQ+).

On the BenMAP website you can find data regarding several countries. The WHO also provide annual particle concentrations, based on monitoring sites.

Regarding intense extreme events, I suggest this recent article:

10.1016/j.envint.2020.105921

It's true many countries have lockdown but, that doesn't translate to a decrease in air pollution. I think you need to do some preliminary studies to ascertain if truly there is a decrease in air pollution.

It depends on your objectives especially when it come to selection of explanatory variables. Like areas that are most likely to be effected could be international trade, tourism, energy price , labour force participation, stock market and economic growth.

Check international energy agency website https://www.iea.org/

I suggest if you intend to chech the effects of covid-19 on air pollutions then you find appropriate variables representing covid-19 like total deaths or confirmed cases and a common air pollution proxy like CO2 (carbon dioxide emissions) from world health organization or worldometer website for the corona virus cases , as for CO2 you can get data from world development indicators of world bank,international energy agency, energy database for global atmospheric research

As the world gets hotter and more crowded, our engines continue to pump out dirty emissions, and half the world has no access to clean fuels or technologies, the air we breathe is growing dangerously polluted: nine out of ten people now breathe polluted air, which kills 7 million people every year. The health effects of air pollution are serious. One third of deaths from stroke, lung cancer and heart disease are due to air pollution. This is having an equivalent effect to that of smoking tobacco, and much higher than, say, the effects of eating too much salt. Air pollution is hard to escape, no matter how rich an area you live in. It is all around us. Microscopic pollutants in the air can slip past our body’s defenses, penetrating deep into our respiratory and circulatory system, damaging our lungs, heart and brain. Air pollution is closely linked to climate change. The main driver of climate change is fossil fuel combustion which is also a major contributor to air pollution - and efforts to mitigate one can improve the other. The constant pollution of the air has very negative effects on nature and on human health. Those long-term and medium-term effects have become problems that are difficult to solve.

The main 10 negative effects that air pollution is causing worldwide:

Global Warming

Probably global warming is one of the most worrying effects for scientists and environmentalists. Global warming is a direct consequence of the greenhouse effect, which is produced by the high emission of CO2 and methane into the atmosphere. Most of these emissions are produced by the industry, so this can be remedied by social responsibility and action by companies and factories.

Climate Change

Climate Change is another consequence of global warming. When the temperature of the planet increases, there is a disturbance in the usual climatic cycles, accelerating the changes of these cycles in an evident way.Due to climate change, the mass of the poles is melting, and this is leading to flooding and the rising of sea levels.

Acid Rain

The gases emitted by industries, power plants, boilers, heating and transport are very toxic. Those gases include sulphur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxides (NOx) issued into the atmosphere that come from fossil fuels burning. When those substances accumulate in the atmosphere and react with water, they form dilute solutions of nitric and sulphuric acid, and when those concentrations become rain, both the environment and surfaces suffer.

Smog effect

The smog effect happens when there is a kind of dark fog concentrated over the cities and fields. That fog is a load of pollutants and can be of 2 types: sulphurous smog and photochemical smog, both dangerous and harmful to health. Both types of smog are a consequence of industrial and urban action. However, sulphurous smog has its origin mainly in the use of coal in many industrial processes. That has been reduced in the most advanced countries – nevertheless, there are still many developing countries that do not have treatment protocols for pollutants.

Deterioration of fields

Acid rain, climate change and smog all damage the Earth surface. Contaminated water and gases seep into the earth, changing the composition of soils. That directly affects agriculture, changing crop cycles and the composition of the food we all eat.

Extinction of animal species

As the ice masses of the poles melt and sea levels rise, many animal species, whose survival depends on oceans and rivers, are threatened. Currents change, ocean temperatures change and migratory cycles change, and many animals are forced to seek food in environments unknown to them. Deforestation and poor soil quality also mean the disappearance of ecosystems and habitats.

Respiratory health problems

It is probably one of the most obvious and worrying effects for human beings. Pollutants can cause respiratory illnesses and allergies ranging from coughs to asthma, cancer or emphysema. Inhalation of toxic agents directly affects the lungs and other organs that make up the respiratory system. Also, poor oxygenation can lead to cardiovascular problems.

Deterioration in building materials

Air pollutants also deteriorate and change the constitution of building materials, so many buildings and infrastructure are weakened, eroded or destroyed at an accelerated rate over time.

Chemical Sensitivity

People develop intolerances and allergies to many agents present in the atmosphere and to other external agents that can go through due to the holes in the ozone layer. This is because there is a high concentration of chlorofluorocarbons that alter the thickness of the ozone layer. Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) are released using aerosols, industrial refrigerants, solvents and other very harmful chemicals.

Skin Damage

Many of the chemical intolerances directly affect people’s skin. However, one of the worst damage is skin cancer. That disease in many cases develops from the direct incidence of ultraviolet light rays on the skin.

Air pollution is a threat to life on earth, however it's impact on non-living components (abiotic) has been well documented as well, Air pollution especially PM2.5 and PM10 found in fossil fuels, combustion dusts, suphates, salts are deadly as they can find their ways into the lungs when inhaled because they are invisible killer,Carbon monoxide (CO) is another invisible silent killer that kills by reaching with the haemoglobin of the red blood cell preventing transportation of oxygenated blood in the body,this leads to choking that kills eventually. Air pollution is the introduction or presence of air pollutants or substances in the air in concentrations that are beyond or above permissible limits or recommend standards set by relevant bodies, slot of things or factors are responsible for the concentration of the air pollutants in the atmosphere, 1. Natural causes like wildfire, wind blown dust,volcanic eruption and so on. 2.Anthropogenic factors is mostly the leading cause of air pollution in our society due to activities of man as a result of population explosion (increase in human population) all in a bid for shelter, food, and sustenance on earth at the detriment of the environment.

SO2 and NO2 has been reported as the main trigger of acidic rain when they react with water, this acidic rain affects normal pH of the ecosystem affecting fauna and flora. Acid rain affects crops leaves and this leads to low productivity of yields which may result in food insecurity in such area. Alot of activities is responsible for the severity of air pollution one of them is meteorological factors like windspeed, wind direction, relative humidity and temperature. If the windspeed is very fast,it can carry air pollutants from one place to another thus increasing the levels of pollutants concentration in such area,if the windspeed is slow, it takes time before the concentration of the later place increases, this means at slow windspeed the concentration of pollutants tend to cluster up for sometime and in such area, the pollution level is increased, wind direction has impact on pollution levels, if the direction of the wind is downwind then those areas at the lower or down part will suffer from high levels of the pollution since they are at the receiving end and vice versa. Relative humidity is another factor, high RH has the tendency to absorb moisture in the atmosphere, it limits movement of air particles to another place and vice versa,

Other activities that occur in the atmosphere include mixing by other gases to combine and form more toxic pollutants that could be deadly.

Considering your proposed study examining the air quality during COVID 19 or before COVID 19 and after COVID 19 is a good focus, I see no crime in directing your interest in that, that is what research is for, I wish you good luck.

Thank you very much for your valuable response Salami John Tolulope Pathalamuthu Pitchaimuthu Samaila Adamu Adeyomoye Olorunsola Willian Andreão Ankur Srivastava

welcome

Just read and refer these papers - lots of Ground reality you will get

Article Evolution of NOx and SO2 emissions in Spain: Ceilings versus taxes

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/346631417_EFFECT_OF_COVID-19_INDUCED_LOCKDOWN_ON_AIR_QUALITY_IN_KAMPALA