Risk tradeoffs between nitrogen dioxide and ozone pollution during the COVID-19 lockdowns in the Greater Bay area of China

作者：Lin, Changqing; Song, Yushan; Louie, Peter K. K.; Yuan, Zibing; Li, Ying; Tao, Minghui; Li, Chengcai; Fung, Jimmy C. H.; Ning, Zhi; Lau, Alexis K. H.^*; Lao, Xiang Qian

来源：Atmospheric Pollution Research, 2022, 13(10): 101549.

DOI：10.1016/j.apr.2022.101549

• Ozone
• Nitrogen dioxide
• Health risk
• Emission
• Lockdowns

Photochemical regime for ozone (O-3) formation is complicated in the sense that reducing emission of nitrogen oxides (NOx) may increase O-3 concentration. The lockdown due to COVID-19 pandemic affords a unique opportunity to use real observations to explore the O-3 formation regime and the effectiveness of NOx emission control strategies. In this study, observations from ground networks during the lockdowns were used to assess spatial disparity of the Ratio of Ozone Formation (ROF) for nitrogen dioxide (NO2) reduction in the Greater Bay Area (GBA) of China. The health risk model from Air Quality Health Index (AQHI) system in Hong Kong was adopted to evaluate the risk tradeoffs between NO2 and O-3. Results show that the levels of O-3 increase and NO2 reduction were comparable due to high ROF values in urban areas of central GBA. The ozone reactivity to NO2 reduction gradually declined outwards from central GBA. Despite the O-3 increases, the NOx emission controls reduced the Integrated Health Risk (IHR) of NO2 and O-3 in most regions of the GBA. When risk coefficients from the AQHI in Canada or the global review were adopted in the risk analyses, the results are extremely encouraging because the controls of NOx emission reduced the IHR of NO2 and O-3 almost everywhere in the GBA. Our results underscore the importance of using a risk-based method to assess the effectiveness of emission control measures and the overall health benefit from NOx emission controls in the GBA.

• 单位
  北京大学