UK COVID-19 lockdown: 100 days of air pollution reduction?
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UK COVID-19 lockdown: 100 days of air pollution reduction? J.E. Higham1
· C. Acosta Ram´ırez1 · M.A. Green1 · A. P. Morse1
Received: 9 August 2020 / Accepted: 1 September 2020 © The Author(s) 2020
Abstract On the 23 March 2020, a country-wide COVID-19 lockdown was imposed on the UK. The following 100 days saw anthropogenic movements quickly halt, before slowly easing back to a “new” normality. In this short communication, we use data from official UK air-quality sensors (DEFRA AURN) and the UK Met Office stations to show how lockdown measures affected air quality in the UK. We compare the 100 days post-lockdown (23 March to 30 June 2020) with the same period from the previous 7 years. We find, as shown in numerous studies of other countries, the nitrogen oxides levels across the country dropped substantially (∼ 50%). However, we also find the ozone levels increased (∼ 10%), and the levels of sulphur dioxide more than doubled across the country. These changes, driven by a complex balance in the air chemistry near the surface, may reflect the influence of low humidity as suggested by Met Office data, and potentially, the reduction of nitrogen oxides and their interactions with multiple pollutants. Keywords COVID-19 · Air quality · Monitoring · Public health
Introduction The global pandemic emerging from a novel strain of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARSCoV-2; COVID-19) has ravaged the world in 2020. This infectious disease has shown to have a significant effect on mortality especially in vulnerable groups such as the elderly, those with cardiovascular disease, diabetes, respiratory diseases and cancer (Williamson et al. 2020). On the 23 March 2020, the United Kingdom (UK) government imposed a country-wide lockdown, closing businesses and urging people to stay at home. As a result anthropogenic movements, i.e. motor vehicle usage radically decreased. The UK Department for Transport (DfT) reported on the day of lockdown there had already been a reduction in motor vehicle transport to 69% of normal and in the following days, this reached a low of 23% (13 April 2020) before steadily increasing back to 77% 100 days after the lockdown (30 June 2020). During these 100 days, motor vehicle usage was reduced on average to 52% of normal (Government U 2020). In several studies carried out in different countries, it was found reducing motor vehicle J.E. Higham
[email protected] 1
School of Environmental Sciences, University of Liverpool, Roxby Building, Liverpool, UK
usage drastically decreased the amounts of nitrogen oxides and particulate matter, generally having a positive effect on air quality (Collivignarelli et al. 2020; Muhammad et al. 2020; Dantas et al. 2020; Tob´ıas et al. 2020; Mahato et al. 2020; Singh and Chauhan 2020; Chauhan and Singh 2020; Bashir et al. 2020). These findings were likely to be mirrored in the UK. According to Public Health England, transport in the UK accounts for half of the nitrogen oxides (NOx ) and substantial amounts of particulate matter with a diameter
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