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Thursday 31 Dec 2015 - 13:16 Makkah mean time-20-3-1437
Tehran, (IINA) - Iran has banned all outdoor sport activities and announced new traffic restrictions on Wednesday due to more than two weeks of heavy pollution and air quality problems, AFP reported.
In the worst concerted period of pollution for three years, primary schools and nurseries were closed, and new car exclusion zones were imposed in the capital.
Tehran's air quality index averaged 159 on Wednesday, up from 157 from the previous day, and around three more times that the World Health Organization's advised maximum of between 0 and 50.
At such levels, people are advised not to leave home unless absolutely necessary.
One area in northeastern Tehran peaked at 238 on the pollution index. President Hassan Rouhani addressed the issue at a meeting of his cabinet as concern rises about health risks.
"The problem has been around for years and cannot be entirely tackled in a short time", Iran state-owned ‘Islamic Republic News Agency’ (IRNA) quoted Rouhani as saying.
IRNA also reported that Wednesday was the 18th straight day of dangerously bad air.
"Our preference was to close all schools, but the education ministry insisted on keeping high schools open because of term final exams", said Mohammad Heydarzadeh, secretary of Tehran's emergency air pollution committee.
The cold weather is causing climate inversion, where emissions from car exhausts and factories hang in the air rather than rising into the atmosphere above.
A decade-long central restriction zone based on car number plates was in place across the city on Wednesday, traffic police announced.
Vehicles with plates ending in an odd number can't go out on Saturday, Monday and Wednesday, while cars with even numbered plates are banned on Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday.
Sand and cement factories around the capital were halted from operating until Friday, the end of the Iranian week, and all outdoor sport including professional football league matches has been called off.
Exhaust fumes from the five million cars and almost as many motorcycles on Tehran's roads account for 80 percent of its pollution, officials say.
Two permanent zones of traffic restrictions introduced in 1979 and 2005 have failed to rectify the city's poor air quality.
While Tehran is the epicenter of the problem, primary schools in other major cities including Isfahan, Qom, Arak and Tabriz were also forced to close.
Weather forecasters predicted that air quality would improve after expected rainfall on Wednesday evening.
Last December, almost 400 people were hospitalized with heart and respiratory problems caused by heavy pollution in Tehran, with nearly 1,500 others requiring treatment.
In 2012, pollution contributed to the premature deaths of 4,500 people in Tehran and about 80,000 in the country, the health ministry said.
AG/IINA
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