Decomposing PM_2.5 air pollution rebounds in Northern China before COVID-19.

ABSTRACT: China's efforts to curb air pollution have drastically reduced its concentrations of fine particulate matter (PM_2.5) from 2013 to 2018 nationwide. However, few studies examined the most recent changes in PM_2.5 concentrations and questioned if the previous PM_2.5 declining trend was sustained or not. This study took a deep dive into the PM_2.5 trend for 136 northern cities of China from 2015 to early 2020 before the coronavirus disease 2019 (the COVID-19 hereafter) crisis, using ground-based PM_2.5 data notably adjusted for a key measurement method change. We find that mean PM_2.5 concentrations in northern China increased by 5.16 µg/m³ in 2019, offsetting 80% of the large reduction achieved in 2018. The rebound was mo

SUBMITTER: Dong C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8731191 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature