Dangerous air pollution has shut down kindergartens, elementary and special-needs schools in Iran’s capital Tehran and surrounding towns on Wednesday.
Tehran’s governor announced that air-pollution indicator in most of the city has crossed the danger line for vulnerable people and now stands at 133. Acceptable pollution levels must be under 50.
However, in ten areas of the 10-million population city air pollution has even passed the 150 mark, and keeps rising, potentially making air quality dangerous even for ordinary citizens.
Local ISNA news website quotes a health ministry official as saying that in a 24-hour period 2,863 emergency medical calls were made by residents with heart and lung ailments.
Air quality control center in the city reports that in the past 12 months 156 days pollution reached dangerous levels for sensitive groups of people, and in this period eight days were considered harmful to all the population.
Tehran’s geographic location, lack of proper regulations and old and unsafe cars are the main reasons for a chronic air pollution problem.