School of Civil & Environmental Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA.
College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Laboratory for Earth Surface Processes, Sino-French Institute for Earth System Science, Peking University, Beijing, China.
Nat Hum Behav. 2021 Feb;5(2):239-246. doi: 10.1038/s41562-020-01018-z. Epub 2021 Jan 4.
The COVID-19 quarantine in China is thought to have reduced ambient air pollution. The overall exposure of the population also depends, however, on indoor air quality and human mobility and activities. Here, by integrating real-time mobility data and a questionnaire survey on time-activity patterns during the pandemic, we show that despite a decrease in ambient PM during the quarantine, the total population-weighted exposure to PM considering both indoor and outdoor environments increased by 5.7 μg m (95% confidence interval, 1.2-11.0 μg m). The increase in population-weighted exposure was mainly driven by a nationwide urban-to-rural population migration before the Spring Festival coupled with the freezing of the migration backward due to the quarantine, which increased household energy consumption and the fraction of people exposed to rural household air pollution indoors. Our analysis reveals an increased inequality of air pollution exposure during the quarantine and highlights the importance of household air pollution for population health in China.
在中国，COVID-19 隔离措施被认为降低了环境空气污染水平。然而，人群的总体暴露水平还取决于室内空气质量以及人类的流动性和活动。在这里，通过整合实时流动性数据和大流行期间关于时间活动模式的问卷调查，我们表明，尽管隔离期间大气 PM 下降，但考虑到室内和室外环境，总人群加权 PM 暴露量增加了 5.7μg/m（95%置信区间，1.2-11.0μg/m）。人群加权暴露量的增加主要是由于春节前的全国性城市到农村的人口迁移，再加上隔离导致的迁移回流冻结，这增加了家庭能源消耗以及室内暴露于农村家庭空气污染的人群比例。我们的分析揭示了隔离期间空气污染暴露不平等程度的增加，并强调了家庭空气污染对中国人口健康的重要性。
