Impacts of emergency health protection measures upon air quality, traffic and public health: evidence from Oxford, UK

Singh, Ajit; Bartington, Suzanne; Song, Congbo; Ghaffarpasand, Omid; Kraftl, Martin; Shi, Zongbo; Pope, Francis D.; Stacey, B.J.; Hall, James; Thomas, G. Neil; Bloss, William J.; Leach, Felix

doi:10.1016/j.envpol.2021.118584

Cited by 16 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…These observations agree with the findings of other studies [ 15 ] which showed that despite achieving 70% reduction in city centre traffic volume, Oxford's COVID-19 emergency restrictions had negligible impact upon long-term PM levels (after accounting for seasonal and meteorological influences) with indication of an increase in PM 10 during the second national lockdown. This is consistent with and indicative of the source apportionment characteristics for PM in Oxford where agriculture and domestic heating play a more prominent role in the contribution to ambient PM.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

“…In addition, the influence upon PM concentrations of primary and secondary contributions and a wider range of emissions sources, further decouple ambient PM levels from changes in transport-related emissions, with evidence for minimal changes in many cities. Application of machine learning approaches to account for changes in weather and seasonal trends have suggested actual increases in PM concentrations during lockdown periods in London [ 14 ] and Oxford [ 15 ]. However, few studies have considered impacts of lockdown measures on air quality when using sensors at multiple city locations, enabling insights to be generated regarding the spatial impacts of a range of lockdown measures upon real-time particulate pollutant concentrations [ 16 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The impact of COVID-19 public health restrictions on particulate matter pollution measured by a validated low-cost sensor network in Oxford, UK

Bush

Bartington

Pope

et al. 2023

Building and Environment

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The impact of COVID-19 public health restrictions on particulate matter pollution measured by a validated low-cost sensor network in Oxford, UK

Bush

Bartington

Pope

et al. 2023

Building and Environment

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“…Studies in major cities worldwide indicated lockdown periods were associated with a reduction in major air pollutant (NO 2 , PM 10 and PM 2.5 ) concentrations 24–29. Studies in the UK revealed a similar pattern to global trends in terms of air quality changes,22 24 30 most notably NO 2 reductions in urban areas 21…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 82%

“…The population is served by Oxford University Hospitals National Health Service (NHS) Foundation Trust and comes under the jurisdiction of the Oxfordshire Clinical Commissioning Group (OCCG). A recent study by the OxAria team provides a detailed geographical, meteorological and environmental description of the study setting 22…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Improvements in ambient air quality have also been linked to reduced asthma morbidity. Implementation of emergency public health measures in response to the COVID-19 pandemic led to substantive reductions in industrial and transportation activities from spring 2020 and related changes in air pollution levels 21–23. Studies in major cities worldwide indicated lockdown periods were associated with a reduction in major air pollutant (NO 2 , PM 10 and PM 2.5 ) concentrations 24–29.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Impacts of ambient air quality on acute asthma hospital admissions during the COVID-19 pandemic in Oxford City, UK: a time-series study

Singh,

Morley,

Coignet

et al. 2024

BMJ Open

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ObjectivesThe study aims to investigate the short-term associations between exposure to ambient air pollution (nitrogen dioxide (NO2), particulate matter pollution—particles with diameter<2.5 µm (PM2.5) and PM10) and incidence of asthma hospital admissions among adults, in Oxford, UK.DesignRetrospective time-series study.SettingOxford City (postcode areas OX1–OX4), UK.ParticipantsAdult population living within the postcode areas OX1–OX4 in Oxford, UK from 1 January 2015 to 31 December 2021.Primary and secondary outcome measuresHourly NO2, PM2.5and PM10concentrations and meteorological data for the period 1 January 2015 to 31 December 2020 were analysed and used as exposures. We used Poisson linear regression analysis to identify independent associations between air pollutant concentrations and asthma admissions rate among the adult study population, using both single (NO2, PM2.5, PM10) and multipollutant (NO2and PM2.5, NO2and PM10) models, where they adjustment for temperature and relative humidity.ResultsThe overall 5-year average asthma admissions rate was 78 per 100 000 population during the study period. The annual average rate decreased to 46 per 100 000 population during 2020 (incidence rate ratio 0.58, 95% CI 0.42 to 0.81, p<0.001) compared to the prepandemic years (2015–2019). In single-pollutant analysis, we observed a significantly increased risk of asthma admission associated with each 1 μg/m3increase in monthly concentrations of NO24% (95% CI 1.009% to 1.072%), PM2.53% (95% CI 1.006% to 1.052%) and PM101.8% (95% CI 0.999% to 1.038%). However, in the multipollutant regression model, the effect of each individual pollutant was attenuated.ConclusionsAmbient NO2and PM2.5air pollution exposure increased the risk of asthma admissions in this urban setting. Improvements in air quality during COVID-19 lockdown periods may have contributed to a substantially reduced acute asthma disease burden. Large-scale measures to improve air quality have potential to protect vulnerable people living with chronic asthma in urban areas.

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Assessing the Impacts of Birmingham’s Clean Air Zone on Air Quality: Estimates from a Machine Learning and Synthetic Control Approach

Liu

Bryson

Sevinç

et al. 2023

Environ Resource Econ

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We apply a two-step data driven approach to determine the causal impact of the clean air zone (CAZ) policy on air quality in Birmingham, UK. Levels of NO2, NOx and PM2.5 before and after CAZ implementation were collected from automatic air quality monitoring sites both within and outside the CAZ. We apply a unique combination of two recent methods: (1) a random forest machine learning method to strip out the effects of meteorological conditions on air pollution levels, and then (2) the Augmented Synthetic Control Method (ASCM) on the de-weathered air pollution data to isolate the causal effect of the CAZ. We find that, during the first year following the formal policy implementation, the CAZ led to significant but modest reductions of NO2 and NOX levels measured at the roadside within (up to 3.4% and 5.4% of NO2 and NOX, respectively) and outside (up to 6.6% and 11.9%) the zone, with no detectable changes at the urban background site outside the CAZ. No significant impacts of the CAZ were found on concentrations of fine particulates (PM2.5). Our analysis demonstrates the short-term effectiveness of CAZ in reducing concentrations of NO2 and NOX.

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Impacts of emergency health protection measures upon air quality, traffic and public health: evidence from Oxford, UK

Cited by 16 publications

References 33 publications

The impact of COVID-19 public health restrictions on particulate matter pollution measured by a validated low-cost sensor network in Oxford, UK

The impact of COVID-19 public health restrictions on particulate matter pollution measured by a validated low-cost sensor network in Oxford, UK

Impacts of ambient air quality on acute asthma hospital admissions during the COVID-19 pandemic in Oxford City, UK: a time-series study

Assessing the Impacts of Birmingham’s Clean Air Zone on Air Quality: Estimates from a Machine Learning and Synthetic Control Approach

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