When COVID-19 swept across the globe, something unexpected happened to public perceptions of air pollution: people became significantly less worried about it.
A new study from Nanjing University has found that the pandemic dramatically reduced public concern about the health risks of polluted air, despite the glaring irony that air quality famously improved during lockdowns.
The research, which combined surveys of more than 1,000 people in Nanjing before and during the pandemic with social media analysis and global polling data, reveals how one crisis can crowd out concern for another.
The findings show that perceived health risks from air pollution dropped sharply between 2018-2019 and 2022. Social media data from the Chinese platform Weibo supports this: posts about air pollution dominated public discussion before the pandemic, but were rapidly overtaken by COVID-19 content from early 2020 onwards.
This, in itself, is understandable, given the gravity of the crisis, however it appears that attention to air pollution never fully recovered to he original levels.
This pattern is seen globaly. World Risk Poll data shows that the proportion of people naming pollution as the greatest threat to their daily safety declined from 0.62% in 2019 to 0.38% in 2021, while concern about health risks increased.
Interestingly, the study found that the improved air quality most of us enjoyed during the pandemic, thanks to lockdowns and reduced industrial activity, did not explain the drop in concern. Nor did increased trust in government’s ability to control pollution, despite effective pandemic management boosting public confidence.
Instead, the researchers conclude that the finite pool of worry theory best explains the shift: when an acute, life-threatening crisis like a pandemic dominates public attention, cognitive and emotional resources are redirected away from chronic, familiar risks such as air pollution.
However, while reduced concern about air pollution slightly eased mental stress, the pandemic itself still produced a net increase in psychological burden. Significantly, the crisis amplified the relationship between physical symptoms and mental stress, meaning people experiencing coughs, chest tightness or other discomfort felt greater psychological strain during the pandemic than they would have before it.
The researchers say authorities should not let one crisis completely drown out reminders of others. Even during a pandemic, they argue, people still need clear information about the ongoing health risks of air pollution.
The full research can be read here.
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