Air Quality Implications of COVID-19 in California

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly affected human health and economy. The implementation of social distancing practices to combat the virus spread, however, led to notable improvement in air quality. This study compared surface air quality monitoring data from the United States Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA)’s AirNow network during Mar 20 – May 5 in 2020 to those in 2015-2019 from AQS network, over the state of California. Results indicated changes in fine particulate matter (PM2.5) of -2.04 ± 1.57 μg m-3 and ozone of -3.07 ± 2.86 ppb. If the air quality improvements persist over a year, it could potentially lead to 3970-8900 prevented premature deaths annually (Note: the estimates of prevented premature deaths have large uncertainties). Public transit demand showed dramatic declines (~80%). The pandemic provides an opportunity to exhibit how substantial human behavior could impact on air quality. To address both the pandemic and climate change issues, better strategies are needed to affect behavior, such as ensuring safer shared mobility, higher adoption of telecommuting, automation in freight sector, and cleaner energy transition.
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(a) Map of the locations of two metropolitan areas and San Joaquin Valley, and (b) Estimates of prevented premature mortality resulting from the changes in concentrations of PM2.5 and MDA8 O3.