The head of the Tehran Department of the Environment has announced that the city’s daily air quality was at critical levels due to suspended particles for one third of last year.

Meanwhile, health ministry officials say more than 2,000 people die each year in Tehran due to air pollution.

“2,724 deaths in the city of Tehran are related to air pollution,” ministry official Kazem Nadafi told IRNA.

The Department of the Environment announced that the city’s air quality is deteriorating at a rapid pace and it has called for stricter regulations on the use of aging automobiles and buses in the city.

The head of the Department of the Environment, Massomeh Ebtekar, announced this week that the department is taking a “new approach” to dealing with the country’s environmental issues by looking at the “fundamental management of the land and water sources.”

She stressed that the return of water to the Horolazim Swamp has helped to improve the air quality in Khuzestan Province and there needs to be a nationwide system of swamps and wetlands.

The drying out of swamps and wetlands has been identified as a major cause of the dust storms that have been increasing in frequency in recent years in Iranian cities.

Radio Zamaneh