TEHRAN – Clunker vehicles being responsible for 65 percent of the air pollution hitting the metropolis of Tehran, remain the largest source of emissions Tehraners breathe, member of the Majlis agriculture committee has said.

“There are 5 million vehicles in Tehran, 400,000 of which are considered clunker, not meeting emission standards,” YJC quoted Ali Mohammad Sha’eri as saying on Tuesday.

The largest amount of particulate matter 2.5 stem from the old cars running in the capital, he stated. 

Old cars are 25 times more polluting than ordinary cars, he lamented, adding, unfortunately, due to the lack of budget allocation, scraping of clunker vehicles is proceeding slowly, and thus cars aging over 15 years are still running in Tehran.

He went on to explain that the production date of a car is not a good criterion for determining whether a car is clunker, inspection must be carried out to ensure that whether the vehicle conforms to regulations governing safety, emissions, or both.

Elsewhere in his remarks, Sha’eri highlighted that cars and trucks causing 80 percent of the air pollution, while the rest is related to polluting industries and mining activities.

Additionally, carbureted cars are responsible for 50 percent of air pollution, while accounting for only 9 percent of the total number of vehicles, he noted.

Referring to 2 million polluting motorcycles traveling across the capital, he regretted that motorcycles emit pollutants 5 times more than the cars.

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