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Written by Sanam Mahoozi
LONDON, Feb 27 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – This winter in Iran hospitals’ emergency sections are jam-packed, forced to shut up schools, plenty of people are unable to go to work or confined to their homes because of the dangerous smog. A prominent United Nations expert describes it as an “air pollution catastrophe”.
The contaminated air has persisted in Iran with numerous cities, including Tehran, continually topping the charts as the world’s most polluted, with emissions coming from aging vehicles on roads, refineries, power plants, and factories contributing to this.
The Air Pollution Research Center at Tehran University of Medical Sciences report that health issues tied to air pollution like respiratory infections, lung cancer, and heart attack take the lives of around 40,000 people each year nationwide.
Air Pollution is Annually Responsible for the Premature Deaths of 40,000 Iranians
Nevertheless, environmental experts say the situation is worsening as larger quantities of mazut – a low-grade and heavy-polluting fuel – are being burned to power the nation’s power plants amid a shortage of natural gas.
The burning of mazut generates toxic gases like sulfur dioxide, which can cause severe illness and premature death, as per health specialists.
“Iran is undergoing an air pollution crisis with sky-high levels of particulate matter (PM) in the air,” emphasizes David Boyd, the United Nations special rapporteur on human rights and the environment.
PM2.5 is the most potent form of PM pollution, where PM2.5 pertains to particles smaller than 2.5 micrometers, which are considered the most hazardous.
In December, daily PM2.5 levels in the capital of Iran were consistently threateningly high, several red alerts were issued by the Tehran Air Quality Control Company, reported the country’s semi-official ISNA news agency.
The high levels of particulate matter were partially attributed to the augmenting burning of mazut by environmental experts of Iran and local media.
Boyd, coupled with other environmental analysts and academics, have expressed criticism against the authorities of Iran for weak rules governing industrial and vehicle emissions and insufficient enforcement of laws and regulations related to air quality, such as the Clean Air Law of 2017 enacted to prevent air and noise pollution.
As an instance, the UN rapporteur pointed out that Iran ‘s interior ministry proposing to weaken air quality standards last month in an effort to keep schools open after several school shutdowns in the previous weeks due to high levels of pollution.
Boyd stated in a video call, “This is a completely inappropriate response to this crisis”.
Boyd added it was “ironic” that Iran is experiencing natural gas shortfall in spite of its large supply of oil and gas reserves, causing the nation to export more fossil fuels.
Iran‘s Department of Environment did not respond to requests for comment. The authorities in Iran traditionally attribute the lack of government spending on environmental issues to US sanctions.
(Sanam Mahoozi reports; Edited by Kieran Guilbert and Laurie Goering. The charitable wing of Thomson Reuters is the Thomson Reuters Foundation. Visit https://www.context.news/ for more details)