TEHRAN – Air pollution brings a heavy economic burden amounting to $7 million per day for the metropolis of Tehran, Hossein Shahidzadeh, head of Tehran’s Air Quality Control Company, has said. Air pollution is responsible for 11 premature deaths daily in Tehran, he lamented.

According to the World Bank in 2018, the economic consequences of air pollution haunting the metropolis of Tehran equal $2.8 billion per year, he highlighted, regretting that the number of deaths attributed to air pollution in Iran is estimated at 12,000 per year, of which 4,000 are related to Tehran.

World Health Organization (WHO) asserts that Tehran is one of the most air-polluted cities in the world. Tehran is ranked 12th among 26 megacities in terms of ambient PM10 levels. In 2016, the annual ambient level of PM10 was estimated at 77 micrograms per cubic meter. This is almost four times the WHO’s recommended threshold of 20 micrograms per cubic meter.

Pollution choking Tehran

According to the statistics published by Air Quality Control Company, the Tehran air quality index (AQI) demonstrated 15 days of excellent air since the beginning of this [Iranian calendar] year (March 21, 2020), while during the same period last year, Tehraners breathed 25 days of clean air.

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), acceptable (51-100), moderately polluted or unhealthy for sensitive groups (101-150), polluted (151-200), heavily polluted (201-300) and severely polluted (301-500).

This is while, last year over the same period 202 days of acceptable quality air reported in the city, while this year it was reported 182 days.

Since March 2020, polluted air haunted the capital for 8 days which was almost dangerous for all the residents, which was reported 5, last year.

This is while, last year over the same period 61 days were unhealthy for sensitive groups, but this year it reached 88 days.

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

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