Air Pollution

Education centers and offices in the Iranian capital Tehran and the surrounding cities closed on Monday after air pollution caused by sandstorms reached alarming levels.

Iran says it will hold talks with its neighboring countries to find a solution for the dust storms that have been plaguing the region.

Referring to dust storms in Iranian and Iraqi cities, President Ebrahim Raisi said on Sunday that the campaign against dust pollution is a public demand today and the entire regional countries are expected to heed their responsibilities in this regard.

An Iranian geopolitical analyst has called on the government to avoid singling out Turkey as the sole cause of the current dust storm problem in Iran and the wider region, stressing that the phenomenon is also rooted in other countries such as Iraq, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar.

Iran has called for the formation of a regional fund to counter dust storms that have affected several countries in the region.

The Iranian president says immediate measures are needed to come up with a solution to the deteriorating air pollution caused by the recent wave of sandstorm that has swept across almost the entire country.

Tehran’s emergency committee has declared Wednesday a holiday in the Iranian capital due to the continuation of air pollution in the city.

Tehran Air Quality Company says the Iranian capital city is once again unhealthy for sensitive groups to breathe in due to the thick layers of dust and other particles.

Iran's Natural Resources and Watershed Management Organization vehemently rejects Turkey’s claim that part of Iran's dust storms originated in sub-Saharan Africa.

All schools were declared closed in the Iranian province of Tehran, where the capital city is located, for Wednesday due to higher-than-normal pollution levels.

Tehran Air Quality Control Company says the poor air quality in the Iranian capital is due an exceptional dust storm, caused by Turkey’s dam construction, that has overwhelmed the Middle East over the past days.

Tehran’s Air Quality Control Company says the Iranian capitals’ air quality index is now at 220 , which is in the very unhealthy zone.

Iran’s Prosecutor General Mohammad Jafar Montazeri has issued a directive to the Ministry of Energy to work to establish Iran’s water share from Aras River given the recent surge in dust storms in the country’s western and southern regions.

An official at Iran’s Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences says 41,000 Iranian die annually from air pollution.

The air quality in the Iranian capital Tehran is once more in the unhealthy range for all age groups with the Air Quality Index reading 196. That’s bordering on the very unhealthy level.

The Iranian capital Tehran’s air pollution is at levels described as unhealthy for sensitive groups.

Iran’s National Cartographic Center has said satellite images show that the focal point of the formation of the thick layer of dust and pollutants that hit Iran a couple of days ago, was the border between Iraq and Syria.

The Iranian capital Tehran’s real-time air quality index is in the red zone.

The Iranian capital, Tehran, is grappling with severe air pollution triggered by dust participles, prompting official warnings for sensitive groups of people to stay indoors.

The U.N. health agency says nearly everybody in the world breathes air that doesn’t meet its standards for air quality. It calls for more action to reduce fossil-fuel use, which generates pollutants that cause respiratory and blood-flow problems and lead to millions of preventable deaths each year.

The head of Abadan Environmental Protection Department says the amount of dust in this southern Iranian city at 8 am on Friday reached 6,831 micrograms per cubic meter, which is more than 45 times the standard level.

Iran’s Meteorological Organization has warned of continuing air pollution in the cities of Tehran, Karaj and Tabriz.

The air quality index in Tehran has hit 137, falling within the 101 to 150 range, which is considered unhealthy for sensitive groups.

Tehran's air quality index has risen to over 150 which is unhealthy for all groups.

Iran’s Meteorological Organization has said people in industrial and densely populated cities will see an increase in the concentration of air pollutants and a decrease in air quality.