Elderly, children and pregnant women warned to stay indoors as political infighting hampersefforts to tackle air pollutionIranis bracing for a fresh wave of toxic smog next week, with authorities warning older people, children and pregnant women to stay indoors.
Dangerous levels of pollution closed schools in the capitalTehranearlier this year, and the weather bureau says these conditions were set to return. Bahram Sanai, the head of the meteorological office in Tehran, said provincial governors had been warned of the dangers. In addition to the capital, critical warnings have been issued for Karaj, Arak, Isfahan and Tabriz.
Air pollution is a major cause of respiratory illnesses in Iran, linked to the deaths of more than 45,000 people a year, according to the parliament's Medical Commission. Efforts to tackle the problem are being hampered by political infighting, amid a failure of cooperation between President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's administration and the Tehran municipality. Ahmadinejad and the Tehran mayor, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, have long had a fractious relationship, as the heads of rival conservative political factions.
The major cause of pollution, according to the minister of health, is the use of sub-standard petrol and inefficient vehicles. Iran produces 60m litres of petrol a day, of which 48m are of "Euro 2" quality - the standard for exhaust emission accepted 20 years ago in Europe. The poor quality of the refining process means that car emissions have high levels of sulphur dioxide and carbon monoxide.
"You can tell how polluted the air is just from the smell of it; even when the traffic is less, it does nothing for the pollution," says Faranak, a 50-year-old woman crossing one of the pedestrian bridges around Imam Memorial Square in Tehran. She wears a white mask over her face.
"I leave my house at 5.30am to get to the workshop and clock in. During the first 10 minutes, my eyes burn, and I'm always careful not to take deep breaths. The entire way to work, I experience heavy respiratory pain and a severe ache in my chest; last comes the headache. It's like my brain is hurting, and it keeps hurting for at least four hours after I've returned home," she says.
The problem is exacerbated by inadequate public transport systems in the larger cities, as well as by the sandstorms which regularly sweep across theMiddle East. It has worsened over recent years. In Tehran there were 218 days with dangerous levels of pollution in 2012 - double the previous year's figure.
On days when it is especially severe, schools and government departments are closed and vulnerable people are advised to stay indoors. Ambulances are stationed along main thoroughfares to deal with emergencies.
Pedram, a 42-year-old building contractor, stands outside an elementary school for girls on Gol Afshan Street in Qods, a large suburb on Tehran's western edge, waiting for his daughter to come out. "I wish every day that my financial situation were such that I could take my kids out of town for school," he says. He also has a nine-year-old son.
"It's all kind of useless when you consider that cancelling the schools doesn't really get the kids out of town," he says. On Saturday, 5 January, the entire capital was shut down, and all sporting competitions and practice sessions were cancelled until 7 January.
As soon as his daughter emerges from the school, Pedram bends down and slaps a mask on her face. The masks are worn by many Tehranis in an attempt to mitigate pollution's harmful effects.
Neuropsychologist and paediatrician Ali Akbar says the masks help to block some pollutants but not all. "These kinds of particles are absorbed in the capillaries, which then disrupt normal blood functions," he says.
Improvement of Tehran's underground train network would help alleviate the automobile-related pollution in the capital. With a population of more than eight million people, the city currently has an underground network which transports up to 2.5 million people a day. Plans have been in place for years that would vastly expand the system's capacity, but the conflict between the Ahmadinejad administration and the city's leadership has slowed the release of funds for the construction of new lines and stations.
On a national level, authorities have repeatedly announced plans to improve the petroleum refining process at sites around the country from "Euro 2" to the far cleaner "Euro 5". Back in 2000, a 10-year programme to phase out old, high-polluting vehicles was launched. None of these goals is anywhere clsoe to being met.
Ali Reza from Arak, 150 miles southwest of Tehran, studies at the elite Sharif University of Technology. "Our professors at the university are really nervous, but everyone is kind of laughing. Instead of crying, we're just laughing," he says.
"The fact that the whole of the government, the authorities, and the nation at large seem to have surrendered to this situation and are just sitting on their hands waiting for a great big wind to come both angers and depresses me," he says. "It's gotten hard just to breathe. My parents haven't left their home for four or five days."
By The Guradian
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