COVID-19 AND AIR QUALITY IN CANADA

室内外空气质量在COVID-19的传播和影响中发挥重要作用。此外，为应对疫情而实施的停工为更好地了解不同排放源如何影响加拿大的空气质量提供了前所未有的机会。 在这个为期一年的项目中，我们将评估加拿大城市的室外空气质量在关闭前、关闭期间和关闭后的变化，以揭示交通和工业等污染源的相对作用。 我们还将评估使用CO2作为室内空间呼出气体的测量方法的有效性，以反映感染的可能性。该项目将产生新的知识，我们的政府合作伙伴可以动员起来支持空气质量政策的制定。它还将产生一种新的方法来指导房间的占用和通风，因为社会限制是分阶段的，这可能会产生一种新的技术，我们的工业合作伙伴可以商业化。 总体而言，这些新知识将帮助加拿大度过放松限制和广泛接种疫苗之间的过渡时期。 此外，改善对空气质量来源的了解可以在经济复苏期间指导刺激投资，以便通过改善空气质量和提高对未来流行病的抵御能力，为经济，健康和环境带来长期胜利。

Indoor and outdoor air quality can play important roles in the spread and impacts of COVID-19. Moreover, the shutdowns imposed in response to the pandemic provide an unprecedented opportunity to better understand how different sources of emissions influence air quality in Canada. In this one-year project we will assess how outdoor air quality in Canadian cities changed pre-, during- and post-shutdown, to reveal the relative roles of sources such as traffic and industry. We will also evaluate the efficacy of using CO2 as a measure of exhaled breath in indoor spaces that reflects the potential for infection. The project will produce new knowledge that our government partners can mobilize in support of air quality policy development. It will also produce a new methodology to guide room occupancy and ventilation as social restrictions are phased in and out, that may yield a new technology that our industrial partners can commercialize. Overall, this new knowledge will help Canada through the period of transition between loosening of restrictions and widespread vaccination. Moreover, improved knowledge of air quality sources can guide stimulus investment during the economic recovery in order enable long term wins for the economy, health, and environment, through improved air quality and greater resilience against future pandemics.