Effects of Covid-19 Pandemic on the

Environment of India, United Kingdom,

and United States

Submitted By: Kimberly Anne Dimal

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Table of Contents

Title Page ………………………………………………………………………………………..1

Table of Contents ………………………………………………………………………………2

1.0 Introduction …………………………………………………………………………………3

1.1 Literature Review …………………………………………………………………..4

1.2 Purpose Statement ………………………………………………………………...5

1.3 Theoretical Framework ……………………………………………………………6

2.0 Analysis ……………………………………………………………………………………..7

3.0 Conclusion ………………………………………………………………………………...13

4.0 Recommendations ………………………………………………………………………..13

References …………………………………………………………………………………….14

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Introduction

Covid-19 (2019-nCoV) is a virus caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus. It can be

transmitted to other people by having infected hands and touching the nose, eyes, or

mouth. People who suffer from the virus can feel mild to moderate respiratory illness and

can recover without any special treatment. However, some people who have a low

immune system will need special medical attention. Older people or anyone who suffer

from an existing illness can cause Covid-19 severe to their body. The people who will

suffer from the virus can get a severe illness and that can cause their deaths. On

December 31, 2019, the first case was reported by the WHO Office in Wuhan wherein

the symptoms were unexplainable low respiratory infection and were classified as

“pneumonia of unknown etiology”. This virus was declared a pandemic disease by the

WHO Director-General in March 2020. The Director also said that 114 countries were

suffering from the virus, and it has 18,000 positive cases and 4,291 deaths.

The Covid-19 outbreak was caused a decrease in economic activities and traffics

worldwide. It also restricted all people in the world to go outside and do activities that they

do in their every life. There are reports that when the pandemic and lockdown started, the

condition of the environment was improving, and the wildlife was blooming.

In this study, people will know and better understand the effects of Covid-19 to the

environment. It is also contained different figures and evidence that will prove that the

pandemic helps the world to rest from the doings of the people. These figures and

evidence do not own by the researcher of this study, and these are owned by the rightful

owner.

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Literature Review

The spread of Covid-19 was first reported in Wuhan, China. This virus created a

serious public health issue worldwide. It can be transmitted easily, and it causes millions

of deaths especially to older people. The transmission of the virus can be symptomatic

(includes symptoms like headaches, nasal congestion, sore throat, pain, loss of taste and

smell, and rashes on the skin) and asymptomatic (no symptoms at all). The immunity of

the people is very important these days because the people who have a low immune

system will be much likely to get the virus. Because of these reasons, governments

around the world take actions on how to prevent the virus spread. One of the orders of

the governments was to implement the lockdown to minimize the interactions of the

people. The lockdown makes every people work in their homes and avoid going outside

of their houses. The other effect of the lockdown is the decrease in economic activity.

Also, this pandemic influences the air quality of the world. The reason behind this is

people avoid doing activities outside their houses that will consume the air quality. For

example, is the vehicles where it causes gas emissions that can destroy the air quality of

the specific region. The lockdown makes a decline in community mobility, closure of

different industries, and decreased the amount of vehicle density. This literature will

determine the effects of lockdown during the pandemic on air quality.

Lockdown caused a decrease in community mobility and amount of vehicle

density, and industries shut down. The said causes are strongly related to the air quality.

The government conducted an AQI (Air Quality Index) where it provides information about

the effects of air quality on public health. It describes 6 parameters like PM10, NO2, CO,

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SO2, and O3. Because of the lockdown, the AQI decline which means better air quality.

The air quality research in China shows the decrease of AQI to 45.1%. the decrease was

based on February 2020 compared to February 2019. In China, there are 2 types of

lockdowns, the full lockdown, and the partial lockdown. Full lockdown restricted all the

people to go outside. They buy their supplies that will last in a month or more to survive

the lockdown. The partial lockdown is the policy where people can go outside but not all

category of people for example is elders and children. This is where they can go and buy

the supplies that will last in weeks or days or maybe they can do activities outside.

Research results in India were like the research result of China, there is a decrease in

AQI. The AQI concentration is not only affected by the lockdown. It is also affected by the

temperature where during summer the concentration will be low and when winter the

concentration will be high. The research in other countries in Asia showed a similar AQI.

In which, during the lockdown the AQI decline.

The lockdown during the pandemic proved that AQI decreased which means better

air quality. The highest decline of AQI was in China where it decreased more because of

the full lockdown policy. Also, full lockdown is more recommended than partial lockdown.

Purpose Statement

The purpose of this study is to know the effects of the lockdown measures on the

environment. In particular, the researcher is interested to know these effects in the

environment of India, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

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Theoretical Framework

Covid-19 Pandemic

Positive Effects Negative Effects

Lockdown PPE use

Reduce fossil
Reduce GHGs Increase Hazardous
fuel
emission medical waste waste
consumption

Reduce
Reduce resources Disposal of Soil & water
pollution & consumption PPE pollution
improve water & waste
quality disposal

Reduce noise Reduce

Increase
pollution & transport & Air, soil &
municipal
improve air industrial water pollution
activities waste
quality

The figure above is the effects of Covid-19 to the environment. It is divided into 2

categories, in the left side is the positive effects and the right side is the negative effects.

Under the positive effects is lockdown and the effects of lockdown are reducing the

consumption of fossil fuel, resources, transport, and industrial activities. Beside of it are

the effects of reducing the consumption of the said activities. While under the positive

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side, there are the disposal of the PPE after using it and beside of it are the effects of

disposing it.

Analysis

India

India was one of the focuses of pollution because of its high population, heavy

traffics, and industries that contribute to the country’s pollution. Ghaziabad is the biggest

city in India, and it is the second-largest industrial city of Uttar Pradesh. Due to the traffic

congestion and dust in the city, in the recent release of IQAir 2019 World Air Quality

report, it is said that out of the 20 most polluted cities in the world, 14 there are from India

and Ghaziabad City was in the first place having PM2.5 pollution level. This indicates that

this air pollution could not be controlled by the state and the central government. The

image below explains that the pollutant concentration in the selected year was taken from

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the Loni Ghaziabad air monitoring station that has been governed by Central Pollution

Control Board. The result was summarized in the figure where it shows that due to

lockdown, the pollutant level dropped down.

The concentration of the four pollutants in April 2020 was compared to the

concentrations in January 2020. The table below shows the reduction percent in the four

major pollutants.

The European Space Agency said that there is a reduction in nitrogen dioxide

(NO2) that is generally emitted in the vehicular exhaust, power plants, and industries in

India’s atmosphere during the lockdown.

There are other reports in India where they said that there is an improvement in

the water quality of rivers in India. That was caused by the absence of the effluents

entering the rivers because of the implementation of lockdown. As per reports, the DO

levels of the river Ganga have above 8ppm and BOD levels down to 3ppm. There are

also some reasons contributing to the enhancement of water quality. For example, the

snowfall that melts in summer and the reduction of the irrigation water demand (SANDRP,

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2020). According to Hindustan Times (2020), it is reported that the organic load, can be

diluted to the rivers, but the industrial pollution destroys the self-cleansing of the water.

Some researchers believe that the self-cleansing of the Ganga River has improved the

water quality to 40 to 50% during the lockdown. The scientist also said that the water

quality of Haridwar Ghats was improved that reach the drinking standard.

United Kingdom

Just like in India, in the United Kingdom, there are several effects of Covid-19 on

their environment. The air pollution in the stated country has the same improvement with

the other countries like India due to restricted activities outside. The NO2 and small

particle pollution decrease the level that has been normally seen at the time of the year

in the UK. The National Centre for Atmospheric Science based at Wolfson Atmospheric

Chemistry Laboratory compares the last 5 year’s pollution levels to the average level of

air pollution.

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 Nitrogen dioxide can cause severe respiratory problems in the body. The reduction

of the level of nitrogen dioxide can also help not just the environment but also the health

of the people living and breathing the same air. The levels of air pollution during lockdown

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gave evidence that the world will have a better quality of air if the people reduce its

sources.

The lockdown also helps the country to reduce noise pollution. According to the

British Geological Survey (BGS), the seismic level of noise was decreased by 50% during

the lockdown. The reason behind the decreasing level of noise is because people are

staying at home. The usual reason for the noise is the traffic, machinery, and people

partying, walking, running, and speaking outside their houses. Because of this, Dr. Brian

Bartile said that because of the reduction of vibrations, it is easier for the seismologist to

hear if there is an earthquake.

United States

The United States is in the position of 3rd largest country in the world. As of

November 12, 2021, its population was counted as 333,643,650. When the first Covid-19

positive in the US was confirmed, the US government execute orders to limit the face-to-

face to prevent the virus to spread. There is a one-state that the US government utilized

measures, it is New York. New York City (NYC) is the most popular city in the US. Since

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this city was full of buildings, vehicles, and people, many reports said that because of the

lockdown the air quality in the state was improved.

The NY governor officially declares the “NY on PAUSE”. It is an executive order

that includes staying at home orders, lockdown measures, social distancing measures,

and a 100% reduction of face-to-face workforces. Because of this, researchers began to

investigate the effects of these orders on the air quality of the state. The researcher's

assumption was fewer people will go outside and drive. This will lessen the traffic and it

will lower the level of the pollutants. They suggest that it is a result of reduced vehicle

emissions (Abdullah et al., 2020; Dantas et al., 2020; Zambrano-Monserrate et al., 2020).

The air quality become better, but the economic activity of the state decreased.

However, aside from having better air quality, the water quality was not that good.

PPE is also known as Personal Protective Equipment is used to prevent the virus to

spread easily. Since it is mandatory to wear masks in different countries, the production

of these PPEs commonly known as face masks and face shields expanded. These PPEs

are very hard to recycle because of their variety of melt-blown plastics. It entered the

water bodies when it is being littered after using it. According to Oceans Asia (2020), the

estimated face masks that they get is estimated at 1.56 billion in 2020. It is said in the

report, “Mask on the Beach: The Impact of COVID-19 on Marine Plastic Pollution”, this

will result in 4,680 to 6,240 metric tons of marine plastic pollution. These face mask will

last long up until 450 years before it breaks down and it will slowly melt into microplastics

that will have a bad effect on marine wildlife. It is said in the report that the global

production of masks was estimated at 52 billion in 2020. Because of the pandemic, plastic

consumption increased.

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Conclusion

Covid-19 is a virus that changed the whole world. Many people suffer from this

virus and most of the people are still trying to survive in the middle of the pandemic.

However, this pandemic and shutdown measures helped the environment to breathe and

rest for a while from the doings of the people. The air quality in the 3 countries stated

become better from the past few years because of the reduction of emissions while the

water quality is not that good because of the disposal of the PPE. The lockdown measure

is not that bad for our environment because people are still destroying the environment.

It is the time for the environment to rest.

Recommendation

The Government should facilitate and create an operation where the workers

should have daily maintenance for cleaning the bodies of water. While the authorities in

every region should conduct an activity where it implements the beautification and

restoration of the environment. People should have discipline and care, especially for our

environment because what they do to the environment will come back to them much

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worst. It is better for the people to have a union to clean and take care of the environment

to preserve it for the next generation to see the beauty of the environment. This study

may help other researchers for their future studies to gather information about the effects

of Covid-19 to the environment of India, United Kingdom and United States.

References
Air pollution falling across UK cities, latest data shows. (2020). Retrieved from https://ncas.ac.uk:
https://ncas.ac.uk/air-pollution-falling-across-uk-cities-latest-data-shows/

Coronavirus disease (COVID-19). (2021). Retrieved from who.int: https://www.who.int/health-

topics/coronavirus#tab=tab_1

Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) update. (2021). Retrieved from who.int:

https://www.who.int/bangladesh/emergencies/coronavirus-disease-(covid-19)-update

Gautam, S. L. (2020, June 18). Indirect impact of COVID-19 on environment: A brief study in Indian
context. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7299871/#:~:text=Table%201%20shows%20th
e%20percentage,most%20polluted%20cities%20of%20India.

Katariya, M. (2020, April 19). 10 More Posters That Show Places From Around The World Before & After
The Lockdown. Retrieved from www.scoopwhoop.com:
https://www.scoopwhoop.com/news/posters-places-before-after-coronavirus-lockdown/

Largest Countries In The World 2021. (2021). Retrieved from https://worldpopulationreview.com:

https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/largest-countries-in-the-world

Ocean Asia. (2020, December 7). COVID-19 Facemasks & Marine Plastic Pollution. Retrieved from
https://oceansasia.org/: https://oceansasia.org/covid-19-facemasks/

Research, U. (2021, April 13). Impact on the environment. Retrieved from https://www.ukri.org/:
https://www.ukri.org/our-work/tackling-the-impact-of-covid-19/researching-the-impact-of-
coronavirus/impact-on-the-environment/

Shelby Zangari, D. T. (2020, November 10). Air quality changes in New York City during the COVID-19
pandemic. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7314691/

Study Literature Review : The Effect of Lockdown on the Covid19 Pandemic Period on Air Quality. (2020,
September). Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/346615993_Study_Literature_Review_The_Effect_o
f_Lockdown_on_the_Covid19_Pandemic_Period_on_Air_Quality

United States Population. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.worldometers.info:

https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/us-population/

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Summary of the 4 Modules

Module 1
The challenges of achieving sustainable development are hard to achieve. Major
ongoing changes in earth systems could beget potentially large negative consequences
for mortal well-being. How to reduce poverty and address rising inequality within the face
of those environmental changes raise important social and profitable aspects of
sustainable development also to the environmental confines. Strong arguments live for
devoting lesser sweats to extend our understanding of the environmental, social, and
profitable confines of sustainable development, which can bear lesser integration of
economics, social lores more generally, and the natural lores. Then, we concentrated on
economics, but analogous issues arise in other social and behavioral wisdom disciplines.
There's a critical need for more rapid-fire integration of social and behavioral disciplines
into the core of sustainable development, and for more rapid-fire integration of sustainable
development into the core of these disciplines. We've linked several problems with the
entered wisdom of externality proposition and policy. When judges start with the stylized
model of the request – which, inevitably, assumes that rights are formerly defined and
allocated – the essential question to be addressed with reference to externalities is unable
of resolution. Further, there is a curious twist within the standard Pigovian approach to
the matter of effectiveness. From the consolation that the criterion may be a standard
Paretian rule, one encounters the claim useful impartiality. But only the Implicit Paretian
Enhancement rule, with its extended problems of impartiality, fits the character of the
matter. Further, we see that the Pigovian rule does not inescapably secure the stylish net
social product. That is, it will occasionally be effective for victims to shoulder remedial
action. the essential problem then said to the structure of the normal externality model.
we have seen that the normal approach is to graft an external sphere onto the traditional
model of the completely internalized’ world. This two-stage model confuses the central
issue by concealing the important dynamic questions. Indeed, the contemporary system
of study demands no interrelation between what is considered the interior structure of the
model of the frugality, and what also creates externalities and determines their form and

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magnitude. When these interrelations live, the consonance and correctness of policy
conventions derived from the model must be sociable serious dubitation.

Module 2
Standard is popular because they appear simple and specific in targets. Still there
are complications and other considerations that must be addressed similar to the position
of standards, uniformity of standards, equity goods, and enforcement. While norms under
the CAC approach may appear to directly put conditions on pollution, it has a few
limitations, particularly in the incitement it offers polluters to misbehave with
environmental norms. CAC doesn't categorically consider the varying performance of
polluters, thereby ignoring the effectiveness principle. This constraint has therefore
encouraged the use of other policy druthers for environmental operation, one of which is
the "polluter pays" principle. This is an incitement-grounded strategy where levies or
charges are estimated according to the position of emigration. It is obvious that this
instrument tends to be cost-effective, flexible in environmental issues. Likewise, request
incitement gives companies and individuals a great motive to reduce pollution from their
own interest. It's natural to draw the conclusion that to some extent, request-grounded
results are applicable for working environmental problems like those affecting climate
change. Still, the approach has some limitations and should be bettered in practice. We
should enhance the design of the programs and guarantee its thing near to its anticipated
targets and reduce the sale figure and acclimate the instrument due to new programs and
circumstances with new technologies. At the same time, it's important to realize that in
certain circumstances related to nonlinear damage functions, request-grounded results
cannot work well due to their essential character. After all, to some extent, either request-
grounded results or command-and-control instruments isn't the point, the most significant
issue is to break the environmental problem, especially the bones involved in climate
change, duly and effectively. Despite similar limitations, the request-grounded result is by
far better placed to attack environmental problems than other druthers like the command-
and-control instruments.

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Module 3
Short-term risks posed by industrial hazards, toxic substances present in the
ambient environment are known to cause chronic, long-term health risks to the receptors
at large. The sources of toxic substances released into different environmental media
may be natural as well as man-made. Anthropogenic sources of toxic chemicals are
increasing day by day. Thus, to protect the environment and health of the people from the
ill effects of pollutants and to ensure safety to on-site workers and the off-site community
in case of a chemical emergency, appropriate measures must be taken at every stage of
siting, planning, and management of hazardous chemical industries. One important
measure to achieve this aim is to carry out ERAs by using appropriate mathematical
models and analytical techniques. In general, the analysis and modeling of the real-world
phenomenon or process involve uncertainties due to the randomness of events. The
problem is compounded due to imprecise data and perceptions in human thinking. With
a view to communicating meaningful information to policymakers and the public alike,
there is an urgent need to deal with these uncertainties, especially in the process of risk
analysis. It becomes more apparent in the case of radioactive waste disposal, which is
highly controversial in most countries. The most developed and well-established risk
analysis methods of estimating potential adverse effects probably are those used to
analyze acute human health effects of high, short-term risk. A primary environmental
benefit arises as a direct consequence of enforcing policy, whereas a secondary
environmental benefit is a circular gain arising either from the primary benefit or from
some demand- convinced effect. However, we could measure incremental benefits,
because this demand represents the borderline social benefit of abatement, If we could
infer society’s demand for environmental quality, we could measure incremental benefits,
because this demand represents the marginal social benefit of abatement. A common
procedure that uses physical linkage approach is the damage function method. This
method is based on a model of the relationship between levels of the contaminant and
the associated damages. Incremental benefits are estimated as the damage reduction
achieved. Examples of indirect methods are the averting expenditure method, travel cost
method and hedonic price method. Adopting the approaches cited in the module can give
the applicable balance between the need to capture long-term impacts on weal, with the

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specialized challenge of the long-term vaticinations that are necessary to achieve this.
The process of enforcing longer time midairs for significant environmental impacts,
requires early consideration, during scoping and webbing, to identify and quantify the
environmental impacts. Due to its roots in the fallacy of microeconomics, CBA can not
completely incorporate complex systemic environmental change, similar as that at the
global position. Still, it can remain a useful tool for design appraisal and policy analysis.
This is tentative on its improvement and enhancement to respond to the growing urgency
of environmental challenges, in keeping with the robust conclusions of sustainability
wisdom. Following the affiliated changes to the specialized structure blocks of analysis
that are now common, it's also necessary to encompass long- term time midairs for
analysis of environmental costs and benefits, if CBA is to remain material to sound
analysis of public systems.

Module 4
The establishment of the NAAQS has allowed for important and expansive input
and feedback from the scientific and specialized communities and has catalyzed fresh
exploration and understanding of the goods of air pollution. The standard-setting
procedure for NAAQS has been responsive to new scientific information and has allowed
for adaptations in the norms when scientific understanding is so mandated. The
establishment of NAAQS has handed targets for nonsupervisory agencies and measures
by which to assess enhancement in air quality and the effectiveness of the AQM.
Prevention of pollution approaches to reduce, exclude, or help pollution at its source,
should be considered. For example, use lower poisonous raw materials or fuels, use a
less- contaminating industrial process, and to have improved the effects of the process.
The Clean Air Technology Center serves as a resource on air pollution forestallment and
control technologies, including their use, effectiveness, and cost. Exemplifications are
mechanical collectors, wet scrubbers, fabric pollutants (baghouses), electrostatic
precipitators, combustion systems (thermal oxidizers), condensers, absorbers,
adsorbers, and natural declination. Controlling emigrations related to transportation can
include emigration controls on vehicles as well as the use of cleaner energies. Profitable

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impulses, like emigration trading, banking, and emigrations caps can be used. These
strategies may be combined with the" command-and-control" type regulations that have
traditionally been used by air pollution control agencies. The increasing emissions of
GHGs affect the carbon dioxide (CO2) which are extensively honored, but the chemistry
of the atmosphere is complex, and the relations of numerous other chemicals must be
regarded in climate models. The key chemical in the atmosphere with respect to climate
change is the hydroxyl radical, which reacts with numerous different gassy composites
and has important relations with methane, a more potent GHG than CO2. Nitrogen
oxides, which have important industrial sources, are also important players in governing
the situations of hydroxyl in the atmosphere. They're also an important source of
tropospheric ozone, a contaminant, and GHG. Ozone situations can be checked by future
emigrations reduction programs. Important advances have been seen in satellite
observation in the past three years, with satellites giving new data on the distribution of
gases in the atmosphere, including methane and ozone, as well as other chemicals
involved in relations that produce ozone.

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