Air pollution reduction and mortality benefit during the COVID-19 outbreak in China
Open accessPublished version of a preprint
Abstract
To control the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak, China adopted stringent traffic restrictions and self-quarantine measures, first in Wuhan and neighboring cities beginning Jan 23, 2020, and then 2 days later in all provinces in China (figure). The countrywide ban on traffic mobility greatly reduced transportation emissions, whereas emissions from residential heating and industry remained steady or slightly declined.1 In this Comment, we examine the change in air pollution and the potentially avoided cause-specific mortality during this large-scale quarantine.
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Recent reports suggested positive health effects of reduced air pollution during COVID-19 lockdown.
“Recent reports suggested positive health effects of reduced air pollution during COVID-19 lockdown.84,85”
From Social consequences of mass quarantine during epidemics: a systematic review with implications for the COVID-19 response (2020) · cites this paper as [84]
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Cites
Drivers of improved PM 2.5 air quality in China from 2013 to 2017
Zhang, Q., Zheng, Y., Tong, D., Shao, M., Wang, S., Zhang, Y., Xu, X., Jinnan, W., He, H., Liu, W., et al. (2019) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.1907956116 · Cited by 2,257 · see citing works
Ambient Particulate Air Pollution and Daily Mortality in 652 Cities
Liu, C., Chen, R., Sera, F., Vicedo-Cabrera, A. M., Guo, Y., Tong, S., Coêlho, M. D. S. Z. S., Saldiva, P. H. N., Lavigne, É., Correa, P. M., et al. (2019) · New England Journal of Medicine · doi:10.1056/nejmoa1817364 · Cited by 1,679 · see citing works
Fine Particulate Air Pollution and Daily Mortality. A Nationwide Analysis in 272 Chinese Cities
Chen, R., Yin, P., Meng, X., Liu, C., Wang, L., Xu, X., Ross, J. A., Tse, L. A., Zhao, Z., Kan, H., et al. (2017) · American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine · doi:10.1164/rccm.201609-1862oc · Cited by 751 · see citing works
Anenberg, S. C., Horowitz, L. W., Tong, D. Q., & West, J. J. (2010) · Environmental Health Perspectives · doi:10.1289/ehp.0901220 · Cited by 747 · see citing works
Wang, M., Pistenmaa, C. L., Madrigano, J., Hoffman, E. A., Angelini, E. D., Yang, J., Laine, A. F., Vetterli, T., Kinney, P. L., Sampson, P. D., et al. (2019) · JAMA · doi:10.1001/jama.2019.10255 · Cited by 395 · see citing works
Self-citationAssociations Between Ambient Nitrogen Dioxide and Daily Cause-specific Mortality
Chen, R., Yin, P., Meng, X., Wang, L., Liu, C., Niu, Y., Lin, Z., Liu, Y., Liu, J., Qi, J., et al. (2018) · Epidemiology · doi:10.1097/ede.0000000000000829 · Cited by 159 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Regional and global contributions of air pollution to risk of death from COVID-19
Pozzer, A., Dominici, F., Haines, A., Witt, C., Münzel, T., & Lelieveld, J. (2020) · Cardiovascular Research · doi:10.1093/cvr/cvaa288 · Cited by 463 · see citing works
Islam, N., Shkolnikov, V. M., Acosta, R. J., Klimkin, I., Kawachi, I., Irizarry, R. A., Alicandro, G., Khunti, K., Yates, T., Jdanov, D. A., et al. (2021) · BMJ · doi:10.1136/bmj.n1137 · Cited by 468 · see citing works
Excess mortality: the gold standard in measuring the impact of COVID-19 worldwide?
Beaney, T., Clarke, J. M., Jain, V., Golestaneh, A. K., Lyons, G., Salman, D., & Majeed, A. (2020) · Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine · doi:10.1177/0141076820956802 · Cited by 370 · see citing works
Chu, I. Y.-H., Alam, P., Larson, H. J., & Lin, L. (2020) · Journal of Travel Medicine · doi:10.1093/jtm/taaa192 · Cited by 247 · see citing works
Neale, R. E., Barnes, P. W., Robson, T. M., Neale, P. J., Williamson, C. E., Zepp, R. G., Wilson, S. R., Madronich, S., Andrady, A. L., Heikkilä, A. M., et al. (2021) · Photochemical & Photobiological Sciences · doi:10.1007/s43630-020-00001-x · Cited by 225 · see citing works
Lai, A., Chang, M. L., O'Donnell, R. P., Zhou, C., Sumner, J. A., & Hsiai, T. K. (2021) · Science of The Total Environment · doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.146464 · Cited by 25 · see citing works
- Authors
- Chen, K., Wang, M., Huang, C., Kinney, P. L., & Anastas, P. T.
- Affiliations
- Yale University (US)
- University at Buffalo, State University of New York (US)
- Boston University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Chen, Kai
- Venue
- The Lancet Planetary Health
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2020-06
- Volume
- 4
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- e210-e212
- ISSN
- 2542-5196 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC7220178
- OpenAlex
- W3025947294
- Cited by
- 435
- References
- 6
- Citations by year
- 2026: 6 · 2025: 19 · 2024: 31 · 2023: 36 · 2022: 88 · 2021: 164 · 2020: 91
- FWCI
- 35.28
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- The Lancet Planetary Health (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- medRxiv (acceptedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Global and Planetary Change › COVID-19 impact on air quality
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis › Air Quality and Health Impacts
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Environmental Engineering › Maritime Transport Emissions and Efficiency
- Keywords
- COVID-19 pandemic, air pollution, traffic restrictions, self-quarantine, transport emissions, emission reduction, cause-specific mortality
- MeSH terms
- Betacoronavirus, Traffic-Related Pollution, COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, Air Pollutants, Air Pollution, China, Cities, Humans, Nitrogen Dioxide, Pneumonia, Viral, Coronavirus Infections, Particulate Matter, Pandemics
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
