16 Oct Spread love not a virus!

I think that everybody can agree that a LOT of stuff has happened throughout the ten months that we have been stuck in 2020. This has been a weird year, with lots of changes to our daily lives. While lockdowns and quarantine procedures have been a pain to some, good consequences have been happening while people are staying at home. One of these is the reduction of air pollution. In a study conducted by the University of Notre Dame, the scientists concluded that China and Europe’s early lockdown procedures dropped their particulate matter concentrations by 29.7% and 17.1% (Giani)! Particulate matter is a significant contributor to air pollution. The study also took it a step further to calculate how many lives this drop in pm concentration saved. It is estimated to have prevented somewhere between 76,400 and 287,000 deaths due to air pollution in China. For Europe, between 13,600 and 29,500 lives (Giani). As hectic as this year has been, it is essential to look on the bright side and think about the good that is happening worldwide. Stay safe everyone!

If you are interested in reading the full study, click here.

Giani, Paolo, et al. “Short-Term and Long-Term Health Impacts of Air Pollution Reductions from 

     COVID-19 Lockdowns in China and Europe: a Modelling Study.” The Lancet Planetary 

     Health, vol. 4, no. 10, 2020, doi:10.1016/s2542-5196(20)30224-2. 

Image by cromaconceptovisual from Pixabay.