Ali Salajegheh, the head of the Environmental Protection Organization admitted in a conference in Kerman on Monday, May 13 that air pollution in Iran is six times higher than the global standard, resulting in the deaths of 26,000 people each year.
According to the state-run news agency IRNA, Salajegheh estimated the damages caused by air pollution in Iran at $11.3 billion per year and added, “The average concentration of particulate matter in the Iranian atmosphere has reached around 30 micrograms per cubic meter, which is about two and a half times higher than our own country’s standards.”
These statements are made while regime Vice President Mohammad Mokhber has stated that the air quality in most Iranian cities in April and May has been favorable due to weather conditions and appropriate rainfall.
Dariush Gol-Alizadeh, the head of the National Center for Air and Climate Change at the Environmental Protection Organization, had stated on December 4, 2023, with the same statistics and figures that the main culprits of air pollution in Iranian cities are low-quality domestic gasoline and vehicles.
This is happening while Iranian media reported last week that the Raisi government has asked petrochemical factories to produce gasoline again to compensate for the gasoline shortage in the country through a $2.7 billion contract.
Experts consider the gasoline produced in petrochemical factories as the “most polluting type of gasoline.”
