TEHRAN – Air pollution has caused respiratory and cardiac problems for residents of big cities of the country over the past few days, sending 12,838 people to hospitals, Pir-Hossein Kolivand, head of Emergency Medical Services Organization said.

High concentration of particulate matter during November 24-29, caused 12,838 people to refer to medical centers and hospitals, 5,100 of whom were suffering from respiratory problems and 7,730 others from cardiovascular diseases, he explained.

Isfahan, Alborz and Tehran provinces had the highest number of patients, respectively, Kolivand stated, IRNA news agency reported on Saturday.
Polluted air also resulted in closure of schools and universities on Saturday.

--------------- Tehraners breathe 47 days of foul air this year

Tehran air quality index (AQI) reached an unhealthy level of pollution for 47 days since the beginning of this year (March 21), according to a report published by the Tehran Air Quality Control Company.

An AQI is used to communicate to the public how polluted the air currently is or how polluted it is forecast to become.

The index categorizes conditions according to a measure of polluting matters into excellent (0-50), good (51-100), lightly polluted or unhealthy for sensitive groups (101-150), moderately polluted (151-200), heavily polluted (201-300) and severely polluted (301-500).

During the aforementioned period, 45 days got lightly polluted, while air quality reached unhealthy levels for 2 days which was almost dangerous for all the residents.

This is while, last year over the same period 34 days were unhealthy for sensitive groups, and Tehraners did not breathe a single day of heavily polluted air.

The leading cause of air pollution in the capital is PM 2.5, PM 10 and Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2).

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