About 35 percent of children in Tehran province have asthma or various allergies, professor of Iran’s University of Medical Sciences, Ebrahim Razi said, Mehr reported.

Razi, also an expert on lung cancer, said that every day a person in Iran gets about 15 to 20 liters of air into the lungs, and considering the air pollution, it is no surprise health is at risk.

Professor Ebrahim Razi noted that the mortality rate caused by air pollution related deaths in Tehran is not clear, while Tehran Municipality’s Environment and Sustainable Development Committee Chairman, Mohammad Hadi Heydarzadeh said on Dec. 21, that approximately 5,000 people die of air pollution in Iran every year.

Heydarzadeh underscored that annually, some 1,650 million tons of pollutants gather in the air in Tehran.

Razi noted that the effects of air pollution on health of people are irreversible.

“Over the past 30 years, the statistics of diseases, such as heart diseases, lung cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease have increased dramatically,” Razi said. “Lung cancer has become one of the most common diseases.”

Razi added, that of all people who die of lung cancer, some 10 percent accounts for air pollution.

In October, the CEO of Tehran’s Air quality Control center Yusif Rashidi said that 4-5 thousand people die in Tehran yearly because of air pollution.

Some experts believe that the biggest reason of Tehran’s heavy air pollution today is because car manufacturing in the country is being done at a lower level, and the amount of manufacturing should be reduced.

Iran has previously had laws implemented for dealing with the problem of air pollution, however none of them worked.

The laws included restricting traffic in Tehran (limiting cars entering the center of the city), as well as scheduled closure of schools and government offices.

Heavy dust storms also shrouded certain western and southwestern provinces of Iran, making breathing difficult for people.

Health officials have been warning about the aggravation of respiratory diseases and advised the elderly and children to stay indoors.

Experts say the dust storms descend on Iran from the deserts and dried-up ponds of Iraq and Saudi Arabia.

Source: Trend