New paper published in The Lancet Planetary Health by Giani et al.

Short-term and long-term health impacts of air pollution reductions from COVID-19 lockdowns in China and Europe: a modelling study

Findings

The lockdown interventions led to a reduction in population-weighted PM_2·5 of 14·5 μg m⁻³ across China (−29·7%) and 2·2 μg m⁻³ across Europe (−17·1%), with unprecedented reductions of 40 μg m⁻³ in bimonthly mean PM_2·5 in the areas most affected by COVID-19 in China. In the short term, an estimated 24 200 (95% CI 22 380–26 010) premature deaths were averted throughout China between Feb 1 and March 31, and an estimated 2190 (1960–2420) deaths were averted in Europe between Feb 21 and May 17. We also estimated a positive number of long-term avoided premature fatalities due to reduced PM_2·5 concentrations, ranging from 76 400 (95% CI 62 600–86 900) to 287 000 (233 700–328 300) for China, and from 13 600 (11 900–15 300) to 29 500 (25 800–33 300) for Europe, depending on the future scenarios of economic recovery adopted.