Environmentally persistent free radicals in PM from a typical Chinese industrial city during COVID-19 lockdown: The unexpected contamination level variation.

Oct 02, 2023

The outbreak of COVID-19 has caused concerns globally. To reduce the rapid transmission of the virus, strict city lockdown measures were conducted in different regions. China is the country that takes the earliest home-based quarantine for people. Although normal industrial and social activities were suspended, the spread of virus was efficiently controlled. Simultaneously, another merit of the city lockdown measure was noticed, which is the improvement of the air quality. Contamination levels of multiple atmospheric pollutants were decreased. However, in this work, 24 and 14 air fine particulate matter (PM) samples were continuously collected before and during COVID-19 city lockdown in Linfen (a typical heavy industrial city in China), and intriguingly, the unreduced concentration was found for environmentally persistent free radicals (EPFRs) in PM after normal life suspension. The primary non-stopped coal combustion source and secondary Cu-related atmospheric reaction may have impacts on this phenomenon. The cigarette-based assessment model also indicated possible exposure risks of PM-bound EPFRs during lockdown of Linfen. This study revealed not all the contaminants in the atmosphere had an apparent concentration decrease during city lockdown, suggesting the pollutants with complicated sources and formation mechanisms, like EPFRs in PM, still should not be ignored.
Copyright © 2022. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Author

admin

View all posts

REFERENCES & ADDITIONAL READING

PubMed

ABOUT THE EXPERTS

Lingyun Wang,Wuduo Zhao,Peiru Luo,Qingyun He,Wenfen Zhang,Chuan Dong,Yanhao Zhang
Lingyun Wang

College of Chemistry, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450001, China; Center of Advanced Analysis and Gene Sequencing, Key Laboratory of Molecular Sensing and Harmful Substances Detection Technology, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450001, China.

Wuduo Zhao

College of Chemistry, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450001, China; Center of Advanced Analysis and Gene Sequencing, Key Laboratory of Molecular Sensing and Harmful Substances Detection Technology, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450001, China.

Peiru Luo

College of Chemistry, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450001, China; Center of Advanced Analysis and Gene Sequencing, Key Laboratory of Molecular Sensing and Harmful Substances Detection Technology, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450001, China.

Qingyun He

College of Chemistry, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450001, China; Center of Advanced Analysis and Gene Sequencing, Key Laboratory of Molecular Sensing and Harmful Substances Detection Technology, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450001, China.

Wenfen Zhang

College of Chemistry, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450001, China; Center of Advanced Analysis and Gene Sequencing, Key Laboratory of Molecular Sensing and Harmful Substances Detection Technology, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450001, China.

Chuan Dong

Institute of Environmental Science, Shanxi University, Taiyuan 030006, China.

Yanhao Zhang

State Key Laboratory of Environmental and Biological Analysis, Department of Chemistry, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong 999077, China. Electronic address: yhzhang_skl@hkbu.edu.hk.