TEHRAN — For Tehraners, the New Year holidays (Noruz) are typically synonymous with clean air, but this year’s air quality went down for five days out of the thirteen-day holidays.

PM 2.5 and PM 10 concentration went high for five days in the metropolis of Tehran over the holidays starting on March 21, causing discomfort for sensitive groups. 

While over the past two years Tehraners had breathed clean air for at least a week over the same period, this year only one day was reported to have excellent air quality. 

As per the data collected by Tehran Air Quality Control Company, the situation was unprecedented for the past 10 years. 

Air pollution can result in spikes in heart attacks and stroke, triggers hospital admissions for asthma, upsets diabetes control and is a class one carcinogen known to cause lung cancer.

According to Cosmos Magazine, genetics contributes to each of these, but a research led by Philip Awadalla from the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research in Toronto, Canada, suggests the disease risk from air pollution may have more to do with the genetic changes conferred by those aerial nasties than with the genes your parents gave you.

MQ/MG