TEHRAN — Iranian Health Minister Hassan Qazizadeh Hashemi called for unanimity among all the responsible organizations to overcome the air pollution problem.

“Different organizations keep on passing the buck at each other [regardless of the fact that] we are all of the same government and what we do will be assessed as one corporate body,” he noted.

Hashemi made the remarks on the Fourth Air and Noise Pollution Management National Conference on Tuesday, ISNA reported.

“The government has passed some laws to cope with the air pollution and if the responsible organizations succeed in executing at least 10 percent of them we can accomplish a great success,” he added.

Shifting the blame on each other would not be helpful at all, he said. It is not easy to overcome such a big problem but it is not impossible.

It is vital to learn how to deal with the air pollution within scientific sphere rather than the political sphere, he added.

Air pollution is an inevitable outcome of the modern life and the development of the urban areas, he lamented, stating that the records of 1,600 cities in 90 countries reveal that only 12 percent of their population breathe clean and fresh air.

He expressed hope that one day the Air and Noise Pollution Management National Conference would turn into a meeting where organizations present their annual progress reports on air pollution.

Masoumeh Ebtekar, the director of the Department of Environment, believes that the current air pollution is the product of mismanagement in the past years and in order to avoid any further damages it needs to be dealt with right away. 

MQ/MG