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June 4, 2025

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Eco Homepage

Covid-19 Restrictions Led to Drop in Maryland’s Air Pollution

October 23, 2020 by Capital News Service

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In the early months of the coronavirus pandemic, as stay-at-home orders took effect and more commuters worked from home or lost their jobs, air pollution dropped markedly in Maryland, according to a recent report from the University of Maryland and the state’s Department of the Environment.

Levels of noxious pollutants were markedly lower: nitrogen oxide decreased around 15 percent, and carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide by 30 percent each from roughly mid-February to late May following plummets in traffic due to Gov. Larry Hogan’s stay-at-home orders, joblessness, an increase in telework and closed school buildings.

Traffic also decreased — registering between 50 and 80 percent fewer Vehicle Miles Travelled according to preliminary data — since the early weeks of the pandemic in Maryland, according to the study.

A pollutant called “black carbon” — tied largely to diesel fuel — decreased 30 percent during a two-month period, though data indicated that truck traffic decreased less than from other vehicles.

The state’s environment department, working closely with the University of Maryland, NASA and other government agencies and university researchers, used satellites, air samples from airplanes, roadside monitoring and traffic data to calculate the effects of the pandemic on the state’s air quality.  Much of the data was collected from mid- to late-March through late May.

Researchers took into account pollution decreases that would normally occur with changes in weather, established teleworking and commuting trends and other expected changes to determine what was likely a result of the pandemic.

The significant decreases in air pollution are not surprising, according to Maryland Secretary of the Environment Ben Grumbles, as traffic on I-95 alone was down 50 percent at the beginning of March.

Now, as COVID restrictions are gradually being lifted, the main issue is how this reduction in air pollution is maintained when today’s “stay-at-home” reality moves into the past.

Grumbles, in an interview late last month with Capital News Service, pinpointed two key measures to keep air pollution at a reasonable minimum: teleworking and wide support for zero emissions vehicles.

Making teleworking more common and a routine in people’s lives is a way to maintain at least part of this drop, according to Grumbles.

“(C)ommon sense efforts to expand telework policies could generate significant reductions in (greenhouse gas) emissions,” the researchers found.

There is no denying the decrease in greenhouse gas emissions was a direct effect of people staying at home and traveling less, so teleworking is “the wave of the future,” Grumbles said.

The pandemic has created a stronger argument in favor of more zero-emissions vehicles in Maryland.

Currently there are around 26,000 zero-emissions vehicles in Maryland, according to the Maryland Department of Environment website.

Maryland has a goal to reach 300,000 electric vehicles by 2025 to have a substantial impact on the environment, Grumbles said.

Maryland and other states signed on to adhere to these principles. Northeastern states also partnered to create an action plan and set specific goals for zero-emissions vehicles.

“This is an audacious and ambitious goal but it is an excellent goal. However, we need game-changers to help with this,” said Grumbles.

Air pollution is especially relevant in a pandemic where the virus is usually evident as a respiratory infection.

Public transportation and investment in this sector will be one way to achieve lower air pollution levels, according to Director of Environment Maryland Kate Breiman, who said people need to find a greener way to get around.

The Hogan administration has looked to invest in not just green cars, but more environmentally friendly buses and trucks. In July, Maryland and 15 other states signed an agreement to increase the number of zero-emissions vehicles on the roads, according to the director of the Maryland Department of Environment’s Air and Radiation Management Administration Tad Aburn.

A combination of long-term solutions is key to maintaining the reductions seen in 2020, Aburn said.

By Rachel Clair

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

Filed Under: Eco Homepage Tagged With: air pollution, capital news service, Covid-19, environment, Maryland, traffic

Coronavirus Quarantine Clears the Air But Likely Not For Long

May 6, 2020 by Bay Journal

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Human life has been on a near-universal lockdown since the coronavirus pandemic first gripped the country in late March. It has been a crushing blow to the economy, but another sector has reaped a windfall: the environment.

Power plants eased off electricity production. People stayed home more, and many cars disappeared from the roads. As a result, air pollution is down sharply, and new records are being set for air quality across the Chesapeake Bay region.

Researchers are normally cautious about ascribing an observed phenomenon to a specific cause so soon. But many say the current situation is unique.

“We’ve seen this immense decrease in passenger traffic, anywhere from 40–50% depending on where you are in the state,” said Jeremy Hoffman, chief scientist at the Science Museum of Virginia. It’s important to note that weather plays a huge role in air quality, he added, but “that huge drop in traffic coinciding with this huge drop in [nitrogen dioxide] in the air is, to me, a pretty convincing relationship.”

Nitrogen dioxide, or NO2, is emitted by cars, trucks, power plants and anything else that burns fossil fuel. Fuel combustion also is a major driver of ozone and particulate pollution.

Where such air pollution levels are consistently high, people can suffer from asthma and an increased risk of developing respiratory infections, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Emerging research has shown that areas with poor air quality have higher death rates from COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.

Air pollution also makes it more difficult to clean up the Chesapeake Bay. The state-federal Chesapeake Bay Program estimates that air pollution contributes about one-third of the nitrogen found in the Bay, fueling algae blooms that kill aquatic life.

Emissions of nitrogen oxides and other fuel-related pollutants have shrunk significantly over the past two decades. But scientists say they’ve rarely seen anything like the plunge in recent weeks.

The average amount of air pollution from nitrogen dioxide in March 2020, while travel — and the related burning of fossil fuels — was greatly reduced to address the outbreak of COVID-19. (NASA GSFC)

The average amount of air pollution from nitrogen dioxide during the month of March 2015-2019. Nitrogen dioxide gets into the air mostly from the burning of fossil fuels. (NASA GSFC)

Researchers at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration in Greenbelt, MD, have been tracking atmospheric dioxide since 2005, using the agency’s Aura satellite. This team’s analysis shows that March of 2020 set a record for the lowest levels of the pollutant in that month during 20 years of tracking. The amount was 30% lower than the typical March reading from 2015–19 along the Interstate 95 corridor from Washington, DC, to Boston.

Air pollution has been trending downward for years, “but this is a step-change down because of the emissions reductions we’re seeing now,” said Ryan Stauffer, a NASA research scientist who studies the atmosphere. “This is like a grand, unintended experiment in atmospheric chemistry.”

Stauffer cautions that the month’s rainy and windy weather likely lent a hand in reducing pollution levels; rain droplets attract aerosol particles as they plummet to the ground, leaving cleaner air behind. And the satellite can only measure air quality throughout entire columns of the atmosphere, so ground-level pollution, which is more likely to be generated by humans, is only part of the picture produced by the satellite.

Ground-level sensors are telling a similar story. The DC metro area has seen a string of healthy air days dating back to March 20, according to EPA monitors that detect ozone and particulate matter. As of May 3, that was 45 days and counting, shattering the region’s previous record of 22 consecutive days, Stauffer said.

Scientists don’t expect the air quality gains to be permanent. When the lockdown is lifted and fuel combustion kicks back into gear, pollution levels are likely to zoom back to pre-pandemic intensity, they say.

The event could help shed more light on how reductions in air pollution affect human health.

In one of the most cited cases in the field, researchers detected a 30% drop in ozone levels when Atlanta all but halted traffic during the 1996 Summer Olympics. Although research initially suggested fewer asthma attacks happened during the games, a follow-up study revealed no firm connections to that or other respiratory ailments, perhaps because there were too few emergency department visits to support the theory.

China’s crackdown on traffic and industrial pollution during its 2008 Summer Olympics also provided a window into the phenomenon. Scientists have variously described a reduction in premature deaths, improved cardiovascular health and higher birth weights.

But more research is needed to firm up the scientific community’s understanding of health effects, Stauffer said. He and fellow researchers have been fanning out across the DC area during the pandemic, collecting air samples in silver canisters. By studying various emission levels, the team hopes to learn whether the short-term air improvements influence pollution levels after the quarantine is lifted.

“This is not the way we want to be cutting air quality problems or reducing pollution,” Stauffer said. “Any reductions we see from the air quality will be temporary. Any impacts we see in the environment or human health, that’s yet to be seen.”

By Jeremy Cox

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

Filed Under: Eco Homepage Tagged With: air pollution, coronavirus, environment, nitrogen dioxide

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