Pollution Keeps Students Home

Pollution is causing major problems in many parts of the world, especially in Asia. Some Iranian students and civil servants have been told to stay home for two days due to severe air pollution affecting Tehran and several other cities in the country. The Iranian capital is shrouded in a thick, yellowish haze, a common occurrence for its approximately 10 million inhabitants, but especially severe in winter.

Every year, between November and February, air pollution reaches its peak in this city located at an altitude of 1,400-1,800 meters, due to a phenomenon called "thermal inversion", when cold air from above prevents the dispersion of warm, polluted air. In Tehran, the air quality on Wednesday was considered "hazardous", with an AQI index of 200, 10 times higher than the concentration of PM2.5 microparticles in the air considered acceptable by the World Health Organization (WHO). Banks and museums were closed in the Iranian capital, and the emblematic Milad Tower (435 meters high) was no longer visible. The pollution also affects other major Iranian cities, such as Isfahan (center), Tabriz (northwest) and Ahvaz (southwest), according to state television. The wear and tear of certain industrial infrastructure, the aging car fleet and the poor quality of gasoline in Iran are worsening the pollution, according to local media. Air pollution is said to cause the premature death of about 50,000 people a year across the country, according to Iranian Health Minister Mohammad-Reza Zafarghandi. In recent years, Iranian authorities have closed schools in Tehran several times, with one such case in 2019, when they remained closed for a week.