Large-Scale Spraying of Roads with Water Contributes to, Rather Than Prevents, Air Pollution

Climate, Air Quality Research Unit, Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC 3004, Australia

Chongqing Institute of Green and Intelligent Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chongqing 400714, China

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International Laboratory for Air Quality and Health, Queensland University of Technology, 2 George Street, Brisbane, QLD 4000, Australia

Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

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The author currently works at Hebei Medical University.

Academic Editors: Krystal Pollitt and Pierre Herckes

Toxics 2021, 9(6), 122; https://doi.org/10.3390/toxics9060122

Received: 4 May 2021 / Revised: 18 May 2021 / Accepted: 26 May 2021 / Published: 28 May 2021

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Integrated Effects of Air Pollutions and Climate Change on Human Health)

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Abstract

Spraying roads with water on a large scale in Chinese cities is one of the supplementary precaution or mitigation actions implemented to control severe air pollution events or heavy haze-fog events in which the mechanisms causing them are not yet fully understood. These air pollution events were usually characterized by higher air humidity. Therefore, there may be a link between this action and air pollution. In the present study, the impact of water spraying on the PM_2.5 concentration and humidity in air was assessed by measuring chemical composition of the water, undertaking a simulated water spraying experiment, measuring residues and analyzing relevant data. We discovered that spraying large quantities of tap or river water on the roads leads to increased PM_2.5 concentration and humidity, and that daily continuous spraying produces a cumulative effect on air pollution. Spraying the same amount of water produces greater increases in humidity and PM_2.5 concentration during cool autumn and winter than during hot summer. Our results demonstrate that spraying roads with water increases, rather than decreases, the concentration of PM_2.5 and thus is a new source of anthropogenic aerosol and air pollution. The higher vapor content and resultant humidity most likely create unfavorable meteorological conditions for the dispersion of air pollution in autumn and winter with low temperature. View Full-Text

Keywords: fine particles; aerosols; air pollution; relative humidity; air pollution events; SNA

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MDPI and ACS Style

Tan, F.; Guo, Y.; Zhang, W.; Xu, X.; Zhang, M.; Meng, F.; Liu, S.; Li, S.; Morawska, L. Large-Scale Spraying of Roads with Water Contributes to, Rather Than Prevents, Air Pollution. Toxics 2021, 9, 122. https://doi.org/10.3390/toxics9060122

AMA Style

Tan F, Guo Y, Zhang W, Xu X, Zhang M, Meng F, Liu S, Li S, Morawska L. Large-Scale Spraying of Roads with Water Contributes to, Rather Than Prevents, Air Pollution. Toxics. 2021; 9(6):122. https://doi.org/10.3390/toxics9060122

Chicago/Turabian Style

Tan, Fengzhu, Yuming Guo, Wei Zhang, Xingyan Xu, Ming Zhang, Fan Meng, Sicen Liu, Shanshan Li, and Lidia Morawska. 2021. "Large-Scale Spraying of Roads with Water Contributes to, Rather Than Prevents, Air Pollution" Toxics 9, no. 6: 122. https://doi.org/10.3390/toxics9060122

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Large-Scale Spraying of Roads with Water Contributes to, Rather Than Prevents, Air Pollution

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