TEHRAN — More than 5,700 Iranian artists issued an appeal to President Hassan Rouhani urging him to take serious measures to address air pollution in the country.

The supreme council of the Iranian Artists Forum, comprising photographers, graphic designers, painters, sculptors, calligraphers, potters, and actors signed a letter to the president asking for immediate measures to minimize air pollution, Hamshahri online reported.

The text of the letter reads “due to the concentration of the facilities in metropolises, the big cities are being affected by the persistent air pollution for years now; however, there are developed megacities worldwide that succeeded in overcoming air pollution and guarantee citizens’ health owing to the governments’ effort.”

“According to the chief of department of environment some 35 million Iranians are affected by the air pollution and based on the figures released by the World Bank air pollution has incurred loss of $23 billion to the Iranians such as 21,000 deaths per annum caused by the air pollution,” they added.

At the end of the letter the artists have urged the president and his cabinet to take practical and effective measures to address air pollution properly.

The issue of air pollution has turned into a daily issue for the metropolises’ dwellers in Iran and various measures such as imposing traffic restrictions and shutting down sand mines has not proved to be much effective.

So far indices indicate that air quality was unhealthy for sensitive groups over one third of the past 15 days of the Iranian calendar month of Aban (October 22 to November 20). 

MQ/MG