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Pandemics greatly affect transportation, economic and household activities and their associated air pollutant emissions. In less affluent regions, household energy use is often the dominant pollution source and is sensitive to the affluence change caused by a persisting pandemic. Air quality studies on COVID-19 have shown declines in pollution levels over industrialized regions as an immediate response to pandemic-caused lockdown and weakened economy. Yet few have considered the response of residential emissions to altered household affluence and energy choice supplemented by social distancing. Here we quantify the potential effects of long-term pandemics on ambient fine particulate matter pollution (PM 2.5 ) and resulting premature mortality worldwide, by comprehensively considering the changes in transportation, economic production and household energy use. We find that a persisting COVID-like pandemic would reduce the global gross domestic product by 10.9 % and premature mortality related to black carbon, primary organic aerosols and secondary inorganic aerosols by 9.5 %. The global mortality decline would reach 13.0 % had the response of residential emissions been excluded. Among the 13 aggregated regions worldwide, the least affluent regions exhibit the greatest fractional economic losses with no comparable magnitudes of mortality reduction. This is because their weakened affluence would cause switch to more polluting household energy types on top of longer stay-at-home time, largely offsetting the effect of reduced transportation and economic production. International financial, technological and vaccine aids could reduce such environmental inequality., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Ambient near-surface ozone pollution threatens public health. Over the past decades, the world has seen complex ozone changes across the globe, with important implications for public health. Previous studies have estimated premature mortality attributable to ozone exposure in more recent years, yet a historical assessment of the health impacts of ozone is largely lacking. Contrary to controlling many other air pollutants endangering public health, reducing ozone pollution is complicated by its nonlinear chemistry and complex relationship with precursor emissions. A historical evaluation is crucial to understanding the long-term changes in surface ozone concentration, driving factors, and health implications. This study uses chemical transport model simulations, ground measurements, and pollution-health response models to estimate the ozone changes over the past few decades, their health impacts, and the effectiveness of precursor emission control. Our results will help improve the ozone mitigation strategies on the global scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]