An Emerged Challenge of Air Pollution and Ever-Increasing Particulate Matter in Pakistan; A Critical Review

Anjum, Muhammad Shehzaib; Ali, Syeda Mahnoor; Imad-ud-din, Muhammad; Subhani, Muhammad Ahmed; Anwar, Muhammad Naveed; Nizami, Abdul-Sattar; Ashraf, Umar; Khokhar, Muhammad Fahim

doi:10.1016/j.jhazmat.2020.123943

Cited by 112 publications

(68 citation statements)

References 52 publications

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“…They analyzed publically available data on confirmed COVID-19 cases before and after lockdown measures and found positive influence of lockdown on coronavirus spread. Similarly, Coccia (2020) examined the impact of short-time and long-time countrywide lockdown due to coronavirus pandemic on public health in selected countries of Europe. They found that long-time lockdown was not effective Additionally, Cole et al (2020) examined the impact of lockdown due to coronavirus pandemic on health and air pollution through machine learning approach and found no obvious impact on concentrations of SO22.…”

Section: Brief Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

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RETRACTED ARTICLE: The COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on environment: the case of the major cities in Pakistan

Khan

2021

Environ Sci Pollut Res

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In Wuhan city, China, a pneumonia-like disease of unknown origin triggered a catastrophe. This disease has spread to 215 nations, affecting a diverse variety of persons. It was formally called extreme acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS CoV-2), also known as coronavirus disease, by the World Health Organization as a pandemic. This pandemic forced countries to enforce a socio-economic lockdown to avoid its widespread presence. This study focuses on how the pollution of particulate matter during the coronavirus pandemic in the period from 23 March 2020 to 31 December 2020 was reduced compared to the pre-pandemic situation in the country. The improvement in air quality and atmosphere due to the coronavirus pandemic in Pakistan was identified by both ground-based and satellite observations with a primary focus on the four provincial capitals and country capitals, namely, Peshawar, Karachi, Quetta, Lahore, and Islamabad, and statistically verified through paired Student’s t test. Both datasets have shown a significant decrease in the levels of PM 2.5 pollutions across Pakistan (ranging from 15 to 35% for satellite observations, while 27 to 61% for ground-based observations). The result shows that poor air quality is one of the key factors for a higher COVID-19 spread rate in major Pakistani cities. By extending the same investigation across the nation, there is a greater need to investigate the connections between COVID-19 spread and air pollution. However, both higher population density rates and frequent population exposure can be partially attributed to increased levels of PM 2.5 concentrations before the pandemic of the coronavirus.

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Section: Brief Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Pakistan is among the topmost contaminated nations in South Asia, as laid out by Nemours scientists, for example, Sánchez-Triana et al ( 2014 ); Khokhar et al ( 2016 ) and Anjum et al ( 2020 ). PM focuses in Pakistan, as in other South Asian countries, much of the time outperform the protected furthest reaches of the WHO.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

RETRACTED ARTICLE: The COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on environment: the case of the major cities in Pakistan

Khan

2021

Environ Sci Pollut Res

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“…While many other countries in the region have shown a considerable improvement in air quality, there is still a long way for undeveloped nations including Pakistan to spread awareness and actively monitoring of air pollutants (Anjum et al, 2021). According to the World Health Organization (WHO), around 60,000 Pakistanis died in 2015 due to the high level of atmospheric fine particles and was the highest death rate in the world due to air pollution (Anjum et al, 2021). The major polluting fuel types in the country are coal combustion, biomass burning and vehicular emissions (Ali and Athar, 2008).…”

Section: Pakistanmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Brief Review on Changes in Air Pollution Scenario over South Asia during COVID-19 Lockdown

Mishra

Kulshrestha

2021

Aerosol Air Qual. Res.

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In general, the lockdown to prevent the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in a better quality of air across the world. The concentrations of both particulate and majority of gaseous pollutants were decreased drastically due to total shutdown of outdoor activities in the initial phase. This has resulted in up to 50% reduction in the air quality index (AQI) over South Asian megacities. A significant reduction was observed over most polluted ranked cities in South Asia like Delhi (41%), Dhaka (16%), Kathmandu (32%), Colombo (33%) including Islamabad and Kabul. A major decrease was also observed in the gaseous pollutants like CO, NO2, and SO2. The strict lockdown provided an opportunity to the relevant authorities to reassess the large-scale transport and industrial sectors to avoid undue emissions of harmful pollutants. The present analysis suggests that there is a need of controlled emissions of air pollutants with reference to the lockdown values of `New Normal', and to switch over to the cleaner fuel technology options at the earliest possible. There is a need to constitute an Inter-state agency to monitor transboundary and long-range transport of pollution across south Asia. Finally, a holistic approach for maintaining balance between `need and greed' for energy and resource consumption is needed which can provide us the sustainable atmosphere and healthy air quality throughout the region.

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“…Besides, human activity significantly affects air quality by using fossils fuel energy consumption, heating, and practicing traditional cooking method, etc. (Anjum et al, 2020;Crippa et al, 2016;Guttikunda et al, 2019;Năstase et al, 2018). The air quality is harming the earth's environment and ecology globally (Foley et al, 2005;Hooper et al, 2012;Lelieveld et al, 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The dynamic impact of urbanization, structural transformation, and technological innovation on ecological footprint and PM2.5: evidence from newly industrialized countries

Sahoo

Sethi

2021

Environ Dev Sustain

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The rapid increases in ecological footprint and air pollution have followed the fast expansion of the global economy. Urbanization has aggravated environmental strain because of population surge, but the development in the degree of technological innovation would counter balance this negative effect. Hence, in this paper we examine the dynamic impact of urbanization, economic structure, technological innovation and population density on ecological footprint and air quality (PM2.5) in Newly Industrialized Countries (NICs) from 1990 to 2017. The study uses other variables like population density, energy consumption, and life expectancy to find out the long-run relationship among variables. We apply Westerlund co-integration, Mean Group (MG) and Pooled Mean Group (PMG) technique to ascertain the long-run and short-run associations among the variables. For robustness check, we use Augmented Mean Group (AMG) and Common Correlated Mean Group (CCEMG) approach. This study would be the first study in case 10 NICs considered the determinants of ecological footprint and PM2.5. The results reveal that economic growth increases ecological footprint in NICs in long run. Similarly, coefficient of industrialization is positive and significantly related to ecological footprint. However, the service sector shows a negative relation with ecological footprint in NICs. It means service sector helps to improve the environmental quality in long run. Population density, urbanization, energy consumption and life expectancy indicate a positive effect on ecological footprint. Further, in case of PM2.5, the results suggest that economic growth and industrial sectors have high magnitude effects on the PM2.5 than the other variables. The service sector reduces PM2.5, whereas the coefficient value is not significant, but agriculture sector positively influences PM2.5 in NICs. Similarly, population density and urbanization contribution to PM2.5 are positive and significant. Hence, these NICs countries should focus more on the investment in the renewable energy sector and make stringent environmental policy for protecting the nations from environmental issues.

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An Emerged Challenge of Air Pollution and Ever-Increasing Particulate Matter in Pakistan; A Critical Review

Cited by 112 publications

References 52 publications

RETRACTED ARTICLE: The COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on environment: the case of the major cities in Pakistan

RETRACTED ARTICLE: The COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on environment: the case of the major cities in Pakistan

A Brief Review on Changes in Air Pollution Scenario over South Asia during COVID-19 Lockdown

The dynamic impact of urbanization, structural transformation, and technological innovation on ecological footprint and PM2.5: evidence from newly industrialized countries

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