TEHRAN – Some 74,000 hectares of southern and southwestern part of the capital are prone to give raise to sand and dust storms (SDSs), the provincial Department of Environment chief has stated.

“It is planned to assign specific tasks and instructions to related bodies, so that each can take steps to overcome this phenomenon,” Mehr quoted Kioumars Kalantari as saying on Saturday.

Tehran might face SDSs in the next few months. The hotspots are mainly in southern and southwestern parts of the capital, stretching to over 74,000 hectares, he added.

Ozone haunting Tehran summers

Rising temperatures which have increased ozone pollution in Tehran needs to be tackled soon, he noted.

“We should think of a solution to overcome rising ozone in the capital to once again breathe clean air during the summer,” he concluded.

Ozone in the lower atmosphere is formed by the reaction of sunlight on air containing hydrocarbons and nitrogen oxides (NOX) that react to form ozone directly at the source of the pollution namely, cars, industry, gas vapors, chemical solvents, fuel combustion.

According to the statistics published by Air Quality Control Company, the concentration of other pollutants in Tehran has decreased in the last month of spring compared to the same period last year, however, during the last month, ozone reached up to a level which is unprecedented in the past 17 years.

Since the beginning of this year (March 21), 25 days of excellent air quality was reported in Tehran, while last year in the same period only 8 days of clean air days were reported.

However, 15 days were lightly polluted or unhealthy for sensitive groups this year.

Tehraners did not breathe a single day of unhealthy air last year, but for one day, air quality reached a level which was unhealthy for all the residents this year.

FB/MG