Indoor and Outdoor Exposure to PM2.5 during COVID-19 Lockdown in Suburban Malaysia
Abstract During the COVID-19 pandemic, key policies aimed at reducing exposure to the virus from social distancing, restrictions on travel through to strongly enforced lockdowns. However, COVID-19 restrictions required people to spend more time at home so the exposure to air pollutants shifted to be...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Springer
2020-11-01
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| Series: | Aerosol and Air Quality Research |
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.4209/aaqr.2020.07.0476 |
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| author | Eliani Ezani Peter Brimblecombe Zulfa Hanan Asha’ari Amirul Aiman Fazil Sharifah Norkhadijah Syed Ismail Zamzam Tuah Ahmad Ramly Md Firoz Khan |
| author_facet | Eliani Ezani Peter Brimblecombe Zulfa Hanan Asha’ari Amirul Aiman Fazil Sharifah Norkhadijah Syed Ismail Zamzam Tuah Ahmad Ramly Md Firoz Khan |
| author_sort | Eliani Ezani |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract During the COVID-19 pandemic, key policies aimed at reducing exposure to the virus from social distancing, restrictions on travel through to strongly enforced lockdowns. However, COVID-19 restrictions required people to spend more time at home so the exposure to air pollutants shifted to being derived from that of domestic interiors, rather than outdoors or the workplace environment. This study aims to characterise the influence of lockdown intervention on the balance of indoor and outdoor PM2.5 exposure in a Malaysian suburb. We also calculate the potential health risk from exposure to both indoor and outdoor PM2.5 to give context to personal exposure assessment in different microenvironments during the COVID-19 lockdown, known locally as Movement Control Orders (MCO). The implementation of the MCOs slightly reduced daily average of outdoor PM2.5 concentrations (median of 12.63 µg m–3 before and 11.72 µg m–3). In the Malaysian apartment considered here, cooking led to a substantial increase in exposure from increasing concentrations in PM2.5 during a COVID-19 lockdown (maximum average concentration at 52.2 µg m–3). The estimated excess risk to health was about 25% for lung cancer from staying indoor. Thus, there seems a potential for greater exposure to fine particles indoors under lockdown, so it is likely premature to suggest that more lives were saved through a reduction of outdoor pollutants than lost in the pandemic. Unfortunately, little is known about the toxicity of indoor particles and the types of exposures that result where people increase the amount of time they spend working from home or staying indoors, especially during periods of lockdown. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-1e928d71d4d041dbbd137ebd7168427f |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 1680-8584 2071-1409 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2020-11-01 |
| publisher | Springer |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Aerosol and Air Quality Research |
| spelling | doaj-art-1e928d71d4d041dbbd137ebd7168427f2025-02-09T12:19:59ZengSpringerAerosol and Air Quality Research1680-85842071-14092020-11-0121311210.4209/aaqr.2020.07.0476Indoor and Outdoor Exposure to PM2.5 during COVID-19 Lockdown in Suburban MalaysiaEliani Ezani0Peter Brimblecombe1Zulfa Hanan Asha’ari2Amirul Aiman Fazil3Sharifah Norkhadijah Syed Ismail4Zamzam Tuah Ahmad Ramly5Md Firoz Khan6Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Universiti Putra MalaysiaDepartment of Marine Environment and Engineering, National Sun Yat-Sen UniversityDepartment of Environment, Faculty of Forestry and Environment, Universiti Putra MalaysiaDepartment of Environmental and Occupational Health, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Universiti Putra MalaysiaDepartment of Environmental and Occupational Health, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Universiti Putra MalaysiaDepartment of Environment, Faculty of Forestry and Environment, Universiti Putra MalaysiaDepartment of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, University of MalayaAbstract During the COVID-19 pandemic, key policies aimed at reducing exposure to the virus from social distancing, restrictions on travel through to strongly enforced lockdowns. However, COVID-19 restrictions required people to spend more time at home so the exposure to air pollutants shifted to being derived from that of domestic interiors, rather than outdoors or the workplace environment. This study aims to characterise the influence of lockdown intervention on the balance of indoor and outdoor PM2.5 exposure in a Malaysian suburb. We also calculate the potential health risk from exposure to both indoor and outdoor PM2.5 to give context to personal exposure assessment in different microenvironments during the COVID-19 lockdown, known locally as Movement Control Orders (MCO). The implementation of the MCOs slightly reduced daily average of outdoor PM2.5 concentrations (median of 12.63 µg m–3 before and 11.72 µg m–3). In the Malaysian apartment considered here, cooking led to a substantial increase in exposure from increasing concentrations in PM2.5 during a COVID-19 lockdown (maximum average concentration at 52.2 µg m–3). The estimated excess risk to health was about 25% for lung cancer from staying indoor. Thus, there seems a potential for greater exposure to fine particles indoors under lockdown, so it is likely premature to suggest that more lives were saved through a reduction of outdoor pollutants than lost in the pandemic. Unfortunately, little is known about the toxicity of indoor particles and the types of exposures that result where people increase the amount of time they spend working from home or staying indoors, especially during periods of lockdown.https://doi.org/10.4209/aaqr.2020.07.0476CancerCardio-respiratory diseasesCookingIndoor air qualityLockdown |
| spellingShingle | Eliani Ezani Peter Brimblecombe Zulfa Hanan Asha’ari Amirul Aiman Fazil Sharifah Norkhadijah Syed Ismail Zamzam Tuah Ahmad Ramly Md Firoz Khan Indoor and Outdoor Exposure to PM2.5 during COVID-19 Lockdown in Suburban Malaysia Aerosol and Air Quality Research Cancer Cardio-respiratory diseases Cooking Indoor air quality Lockdown |
| title | Indoor and Outdoor Exposure to PM2.5 during COVID-19 Lockdown in Suburban Malaysia |
| title_full | Indoor and Outdoor Exposure to PM2.5 during COVID-19 Lockdown in Suburban Malaysia |
| title_fullStr | Indoor and Outdoor Exposure to PM2.5 during COVID-19 Lockdown in Suburban Malaysia |
| title_full_unstemmed | Indoor and Outdoor Exposure to PM2.5 during COVID-19 Lockdown in Suburban Malaysia |
| title_short | Indoor and Outdoor Exposure to PM2.5 during COVID-19 Lockdown in Suburban Malaysia |
| title_sort | indoor and outdoor exposure to pm2 5 during covid 19 lockdown in suburban malaysia |
| topic | Cancer Cardio-respiratory diseases Cooking Indoor air quality Lockdown |
| url | https://doi.org/10.4209/aaqr.2020.07.0476 |
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