Air Pollution Increases Cardiac and Respiratory Patient Hospital Visits by 30 Percent
An Iranian Health Ministry official warned about endangering “public health” if dust storms continue in the country, citing a 30 percent increase in hospital visits by cardiac and respiratory patients.
Abbas Shahsoni, head of the Air Health and Climate Change group at the Health Ministry, told ILNA news agency on Thursday, April 15, that decision-making regarding air pollution is not “national” in scope, and regarding Tehran he said “if conditions are such that we conclude that dust particle concentration and pollution in Tehran is increasing, we will quickly convene the Air Pollution Emergency Committee session.”
Meanwhile, Sadegh Ziaeian, head of the National Center for Weather Hazard Prediction and Crisis Management, announced strong winds and dust storms in some areas of the country on Friday, April 16, and in the coming days.
According to Ziaeian, this weather system will cause thunderstorms, strong winds, and dust storms starting Friday in areas of the southwest, south, and center, and parts of northern Iran, and will reach eastern provinces by Monday.
The air in vast areas of western, southwestern, and central Iran has suffered severe pollution since a dust storm system entered the country over a week ago, and conditions in many areas have been declared “dangerous.”
Some experts and officials last week criticized crisis management in this situation by responsible bodies. In response to these criticisms, responsible organizations and centers have attributed the source of this dust to Iraq and blamed Turkish water policies as the cause.
In this regard, Mahmoud Sadeghi, former member of the Islamic Consultative Assembly, wrote on Thursday in a tweet: “For two weeks the entire country has been covered in dust, and not a single official lifts a finger!”
He continued: “Then the leadership says: The power system of the Islamic Republic and its various achievements in different sectors have made Iran an attractive model for nations.”
Somayeh Rafiei, head of the Environmental faction in Iran’s parliament, also criticized on April 10 the failure of Ibrahim Raisi’s government to allocate budget to combat dust storms, saying: “It is not exactly clear why the National Center for Combating Dust Storms in the Environmental Organization did not make requests and follow up for securing necessary funds regarding this crisis problem.”
Source: Radio Farda
