In March of 2020, the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 an international public health emergency. In an attempt to slow the spread of COVID-19, the CDC recommended implementing social distancing practices. In this study (N = 732), we examined self-reported indicators of social distancing (e.g., avoiding physical contact, declining social gatherings), duration of social distancing (in days), and the number of times participants went outside in the past week as simultaneous predictors of various measures of well-being (i.e., loneliness, emotional states). When controlling for overall satisfaction of life, findings suggested that individuals who reported higher levels of social distancing also reported more negative emotions, less positive emotions, and more anxiety symptoms. Surprisingly, individuals who reported higher levels of social distancing reported less loneliness. Individuals who reported going outside more often also indicated less loneliness, fewer depressive symptoms, and fewer anxiety symptoms. These findings suggest that social distancing practices play a substantial but nuanced role in well-being in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In Life Cycle Assessment and Comparative Risk Assessment potential human exposure to toxic pollutants can be expressed as the human intake fraction (iF), representing the fraction of the quantity emitted that enters the human population. To assess model uncertainty in the human intake fraction, ingestion and inhalation iFs of 367 substances emitted to air and freshwater were calculated with two commonly applied multi-media fate and exposure models, CalTOX and USES-LCA. Comparison of the model outcomes reveal that uncertainty in the ingestion iFs was up to a factor of 70. The uncertainty in the inhalation iFs was up to a factor of 865,000. The comparison showed that relatively few model differences account for the uncertainties found. An optimal model structure in the calculation of human intake fractions can be achieved by including (1) rain and no-rain scenarios, (2) a continental sea water compartment, (3) drinking water purification, (4) pH-correction of chemical properties, and (5) aerosol-associated deposition on plants. Finally, vertical stratification of the soil compartment combined with a chemical-dependent soil depth may be considered in future intake fraction calculations.