August 2020 - AQServe

European cities race to clean the air

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Source: https://www.euronews.com/2020/08/31/european-cities-race-to-clean-the-air By Copernicus 31/08/2020 London view from St Paul's Cathedral Copyright Getty Images Mounting concerns about public health are pushing cities to scrub their air clean. But just how easy is breathing fresh air again? Italy’s economic powerhouse hadn’t felt so clean in years. As the novel coronavirus put the country and the hard-hit region of Lombardia under lockdown, muting the human and economic buzz, it also unlocked an unlikely reality: cities with better quality. Above the Earth, satellites confirmed the slash in air pollutants, as they took snapshots of the region’s clearer skies, including Milan’s, infamous for its dangerous air pollution levels, just as many other places in the world. This March, nitrous oxide was down 38%, particulate matter 14%, and benzene 33% lower, compared to the same month between 2016-2019, data from Lombardia’s environment agency showed. Madrid, Lisbon, and other cities in Europe also breathed fresher air through their lockdowns. But this silver lining to the global health emergency turns to be short-lived as...

Exposure to air pollution may increase risk of COVID-19 death

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Source: https://airqualitynews.com/2020/08/25/exposure-to-air-pollution-may-increase-risk-of-covid-19-death/ 25.08.2020 Long-term exposure to particulate matter (PM2.5) may increase the risk of contracting and dying from COVID-19 by up to 7%, according to researchers at the Office for National Statistics (ONS). In order to understand the link between long-term exposure to air pollution and COVID-19, researchers at ONS developed a detailed statistical model controlling for factors such as levels of deprivation, ethnicity, population density, public health and pre-existing health conditions. The researchers considered exposure to ozone, fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2). They did not account for changes in pollution levels since the pandemic began. At the start of the pandemic, infection rates were highest in cities where air pollution is also high. Up to the week when lockdown began, 45% of deaths in England had occurred in London, however by the week ending June 12, this had fallen to 18%. As the virus spread across the country, the correlation between air pollution exposure and COVID-19 mortality decreased. While deaths rates have generally been...

CyI Models Atmospheric Transport of Pollution After Explosion in Beirut

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Trajectory ensemble over 72 hours of atmospheric transport of air parcels originating from the 4 August 2020 explosion at Beirut, Lebanon The Environmental Predictions Department of The Cyprus Institute Climate and Atmosphere Research Center (CARE-C) has used the HYSPLIT model to track and forecast the potential atmospheric transport of pollution originating from the explosion of 4 August 2020 at Beirut, Lebanon. In the HYSPLIT particle model, a fixed number of particles are advected about the model domain by the mean wind field and spread by a turbulent component. The model calculates a 3-dimensional particle distribution (horizontal and vertical). The modelled meteorological conditions, including wind speed and direction, were used to calculate air parcel trajectories for 72 hours after the explosion. The trajectory ensemble includes multiple trajectories from the location of the explosion. Based on the model, air masses above the accident site were transported to the East and South of Lebanon. Each member of the trajectory ensemble is calculated by offsetting the meteorological data...

Air pollution may be linked to the development of diabetes, new study

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Source: http://airqualitynews.com/2020/08/21/air-pollution-linked-to-diabetes/ 21.08.2020 Exposure to air pollution may increase the risk of developing diabetes, according to a new study published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation. To test the impact that air pollution has on health, researchers from the University of Cardiovascular Research Institute created an environment that mimicked a polluted day in New Delhi or Beijing, by concentrating fine particulate matter pollution (PM2.5). Using a mouse model study, the researchers observed the health impacts of three groups, a control group receiving clean filtered air, a group exposed to polluted air for 24 weeks and a group fed a high-fat diet. The researchers found that being exposed to air pollution was comparable to eating a high-fat diet. Both air pollution and the high-fat diet group showed insulin resistance and abnormal metabolism – just like you would see in a pre-diabetic state. These changes were associated with changes in the epigenome, a layer of control that can turn on and off thousands of genes, representing a critical buffer...

Air pollution is a driver of residential electricity demand, study finds

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Cleaner urban air will help reduce energy demand and mitigate carbon emissions Source: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/08/200817123057.htm August 17, 2020 A study conducted by Associate Professor Alberto Salvo from the Department of Economics at the National University of Singapore (NUS) Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences revealed that households respond to ambient air pollution by increasing electricity consumption, which in turn increases the carbon emissions that are co-produced in supplying the electricity. The study, set in Singapore, revealed that better air quality will bring about climate co-benefits -- in reducing electricity generation via lower household demand, and thus mitigating carbon emissions. Assoc Prof Salvo said, "Urban areas in developing Asian nations are home to an expanding base of energy consumers, with energy supply likely to remain carbon intensive for decades in the absence of major technological or regulatory shifts. Understanding what drives energy demand across the socioeconomic distribution of Singapore households can provide insight on the future energy demand of urban populations in the region's cities as...

Ambient air pollution increases carbon emissions

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Source: https://www.news-medical.net/news/20200817/Ambient-air-pollution-increases-carbon-emissions.aspx Reviewed by James Ives, M.Psych. (Editor) Aug 17 2020 A study conducted by Associate Professor Alberto Salvo from the Department of Economics at the National University of Singapore (NUS) Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences revealed that households respond to ambient air pollution by increasing electricity consumption, which in turn increases the carbon emissions that are co-produced in supplying the electricity. The study, set in Singapore, revealed that better air quality will bring about climate co-benefits - in reducing electricity generation via lower household demand, and thus mitigating carbon emissions. Urban areas in developing Asian nations are home to an expanding base of energy consumers, with energy supply likely to remain carbon intensive for decades in the absence of major technological or regulatory shifts. Alberto Salvo, Associate Professor, Department of Economics, National University of Singapore Understanding what drives energy demand across the socioeconomic distribution of Singapore households can provide insight on the future energy demand of urban populations in the region's cities as incomes rise....

CyI Models Atmospheric Transport of Pollution After Explosion in Beirut

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Source: https://www.cyi.ac.cy/index.php/cyi-news/cyi-uses-modelled-atmospheric-transport-after-explosion-in-beirut-lebanon-1856.html August 5, 2020 The Environmental Predictions Department of The Cyprus Institute Climate and Atmosphere Research Center (CARE-C) has used the HYSPLIT model to track and forecast the potential atmospheric transport of pollution originating from the explosion of 4 August 2020 at Beirut, Lebanon. In the HYSPLIT particle model, a fixed number of particles are advected about the model domain by the mean wind field and spread by a turbulent component. The model calculates a 3-dimensional particle distribution (horizontal and vertical). The modelled meteorological conditions, including wind speed and direction, were used to calculate air parcel trajectories for 72 hours after the explosion. The trajectory ensemble includes multiple trajectories from the location of the explosion. Based on the model, air masses above the accident site were transported to the East and South of Lebanon. Each member of the trajectory ensemble is calculated by offsetting the meteorological data by a fixed grid factor (one grid meteorological grid point in the horizontal and 0.01 sigma units...