Tehran's air pollution reaches its worst
By Sara Rajabova
Air pollution problem in Iran’s capital city Tehran has become more acute in recent days. On the rise for a couple of days, air pollution in Tehran has reached its worst as a new wave of pollutant particles has settled in.
Sources said the density of particles smaller than 2.5 micrometers in diameter in the air has reached 135. The air was announced unhealthy for sensitive groups for the day, Nasim news agency reported.
The city’s districts 11 and 19 with pollution densities of 173 were the worst hit areas.
A recent report by the Tehran Air Quality Control Company, which provided statistics on the city’s air quality in the past 16 years, revealed that there have been 1688 unclean days that by far outnumber the only 219 clean days out of 5840 during the period.
The air over Iran's capital is amongst the most polluted in the world and many Iranians suffer from serious health problems. The problem of Tehran's air pollution has repeatedly forced the government to declare some days off in the capital due to the high degree of pollution.
In one of the most severe instances of air pollution in the city, almost 400 people were hospitalized with heart and respiratory problems caused by heavy air pollution on December 31, 2014.
“Air pollution has now emerged as a silent killer with an impact which is four times greater than that of HIV/AIDS,” Gary Lewis, UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative in Iran said last January.
Earlier, Iran revealed the major reason behind the air pollution in Tehran blaming gasoline, which contains Pollutant MMT (Methylcyclopentadienyl Manganese Tricarbonyl) - a gasoline additive that enhances octane to reduce knock for the air pollution in the city.
The Iranian government attempts to resolve the air pollution distributing clean gasoline in the country. However, it was unable to completely address the problem.
Vehicles are the main reason for air pollution in Tehran. Only 40 percent of people in Tehran use public transport, while 60 percent use their personal cars.
Tehran is wedged between two mountains that trap the fumes of its bumper-to-bumper traffic.
Other major Iranian cities also struggle with air pollution on a seasonal basis.
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Sara Rajabova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on
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