By Sanam Mahoozi
LONDON, Jan 30 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Toxic air that cloaked Iran this winter sent thousands to hospital, shuttered schools and forced Tehran to admit it must do more to tackle its top pollutants: old cars and filthy fuel.
In the capital, a sprawling mountain-ringed metropolis that is home to more than 18 million people, residents experienced only five days of clean air between last March and December, according to Tehran Air Quality Control.
The city frequently ranks among the world’s most polluted, said Swiss-based air quality monitoring company IQAir.
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Other big cities – Ahvaz, Mashhad, Tabriz, Isfahan, Zabol – are also grappling with dangerous levels of pollution, putting the young, old and vulnerable at particular risk.
The United Nations says air pollution is the biggest environmental health risk of our time – leading to some 8 million premature deaths a year – and also chokes off economies and exacerbates climate change.
The Thomson Reuters Foundation talked to residents, doctors, business people and parents in Iran about the pollution, all of whom asked not to be named for fear of official reprisal.
A 47-year-old lung specialist from Tehran explained how her patients had suffered a significant increase in respiratory illnesses, such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), as pollution set in this winter.
“We’ve also seen more cases of bronchitis, allergic reactions and cardiovascular complications linked to prolonged exposure to polluted air,” she said.
“Until something is done to fix the problem, we will continue to see patients suffering.”
In December, Health Minister Mohammad Reza Zafarghandi said air pollution kills more than 50,000 Iranians each year, with 15% of deaths among children under five attributed to pollution.
A 32-year-old mother from Tehran said she couldn’t send her children to school for days on end and had to keep her windows closed at home. Even then, she said, the air was stifling.
“I could still feel a burning sensation in my eyes and in my throat – it was sometimes hard to breathe and I was terrified.
“I am heartbroken. It feels like the health and lives of me and my children are not important to those in charge.”
ROOT CAUSES
Iran‘s cities have long struggled with chronic air pollution, mainly caused by emissions from millions of old vehicles, and from refineries, power plants and factories.
One of the biggest contributors is the burning of mazut, a low-quality, heavy fuel used in factories and refineries but also in power plants to make up for natural gas shortages, especially when energy demand is high in winter.
Speaking on National Clean Air Day in January, President Masoud Pezeshkian acknowledged that using mazut was a mistake.
“We didn’t want to burn mazut this year, but we got stuck —if we stopped burning it, then we would have had to cut off the gas supply from homes,” Pezeshkian said.
“We are sorry — next year, we should not burn mazut.”
Pezeshkian said his government planned to expand the use of renewables, such as solar and wind.
Despite holding the world’s second-largest gas reserves after Russia, Iran imports gas, including from Turkmenistan, due to severe under-investment caused in part by U.S. sanctions.
Burning mazut emits toxic gases such as sulphur dioxide, hazardous airborne particles known as PM2.5, as well as black carbon.
These can contribute to severe illness and premature death, according to health experts.
Iranian authorities have also pledged to tackle emissions from transport.
Under the 2017 Clean Air Act, some 24 million older vehicles – for example, personal cars aged over 20 – were supposed to be scrapped.
Yet action has been slow.
Shina Ansari, head of the Department of the Environment, said in January that only a small number of vehicles had been taken off the streets.
“Air pollution was not created overnight, and its solution will not come overnight either – effective solutions require logical decisions over a set period, along with national determination, to reduce unhealthy days and improve air quality,” Ansari said at the Clean Air Day event.
Methane emissions from oil and gas operations, waste management and agriculture also contribute to Iran‘s toxic air, according to the Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC), a partnership of governments, inter-governmental organisations and NGOs.
A 40-year-old businessman, who lives in the northern city of Tabriz, said that instead of its usual winter cover of snow and rain, the city was blanketed by a heavy, orange fog.
“It’s so bad – we can’t even see a mountain that is 100 metres ahead hiding behind the smog,” he said.
CRISIS BEYOND BORDERS
Armin Sorooshian, a professor of chemical and environmental engineering at the University of Arizona, said weather, emissions, and dust particles travelling from other regions could all affect air quality.
“On top of that, Tehran is like a bowl that is surrounded by mountains, and in the winter, pollution is worse because of what we call a temperature inversion layer,” he said.
This happens when warm air sits above a layer of cold air, preventing pollutants from rising.
“Then you have got a city like Ahvaz in Khuzestan with a lot of dust coming from places like Iraq and countries on the other side of the Persian Gulf that adds to the problem of local emissions,” Sorooshian said.
Nathan Borgford-Parnell, science affairs lead at the CCAC, said air pollution could be mitigated.
“Iran can tackle the challenges posed by sand and dust storms through strengthening cross-border collaboration, enhancing monitoring…as well as expanding green spaces, and controlling dust from construction and roads,” he said.
“Introducing stricter emissions standards for industries and improving vehicle standards and maintenance can deliver meaningful benefits quickly,” he added.
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