Impact of COVID-19 restrictions on hourly levels of PM10, PM2.5 and black carbon at an industrial suburban site in northern Spain

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, lockdown restrictions were established around the world. Many studies have assessed whether these restrictions affected atmospheric pollution. Comparison between them is difficult as the periods of time considered are generally not the same and thus, different conclusions may be reached. Besides, most of them consider mean daily pollutant concentration, despite differences being observed according to the time of day. In this study, the hourly levels of PM10, PM2.5 and black carbon (BC) in an industrial suburban area in the north of Spain were analysed from May 2019 to June 2020 and compared with those from the literature, using the same period in each case. In general, the highest concentrations were reached when the wind direction came from the southwest (where a steelworks, a coal-fired power plant and other industries are located) and during the night-time, both before and during the lockdown. The highest concentrations of PM10, PM2.5 and BC were observed from December to February (on average: 45, 17 and 1.3 μg m(−3), respectively). The decrease/increase in those pollutants levels during the lockdown were found to be highly dependent on the period considered. Indeed, PM10 can be found to decrease by up to 39% or increase by 12%; PM2.5 can decrease by 21% or increase by up to 36%; and BC, although it generally decreases (by up to 42%), can increase by 7.4%.