Air Pollution and School and Office Closures; Observers: It is Due to Government Inefficiency

As air pollution intensifies in some cities in Iran, schools and government offices have been closed, and according to officials of the Islamic Republic, the number of victims of air pollution has reached "50,000 people per year." Some observers attribute this situation to mismanagement, stating: "Bankruptcy has spread, and wherever they try to fix something, it gets worse elsewhere." The Tehran Air Pollution Emergency Committee announced on Tuesday, December 20, that all schools, universities, and government offices in Tehran province, except for Damavand and Firuzkuh, will be closed for the next two days, Thursday and Friday. According to a report by the government news agency ISNA, the Meteorological Organization has warned that the concentration of pollutants in Tehran province has increased and this situation will continue until Friday, December 23. The intensification of air pollution, especially in Tehran and Alborz provinces, comes at a time when citizens are witnessing rainfall in these areas. Government media in Iran have reported that the number of cities with "unhealthy and dangerous air" reached "63 cities" on Monday, December 19, and in the past week, the number of respiratory patients visiting hospitals in 10 provinces of Iran has increased by "36 percent." Previous reports indicate that some observers believe the current air pollution situation in metropolises and the environmental crisis in Iran is due to the mismanagement of the Islamic Republic's officials. Akbar Montajebi, a journalist in Iran, attributed the increase in air pollution to "mazut burning, outdated infrastructure, imbalance, and a thousand and one other issues including the inefficiency of the government managers," writing on social media platform X: "We are all dying! ... Easily and silently dying!" Additionally, journalist Saeed Arkanzadeh emphasized the current crisis management by the Islamic Republic's officials, stating: "Things are not progressing. The machine is broken and stuck in the middle of the road. Decay and bankruptcy have spread, and wherever they try to fix something, it gets worse elsewhere. It is clear that they cannot even think about solving air pollution. Ultimately, they pretend in the media that they are solving the problems." Reports indicate that this week, schools in some cities have been closed, and classes have been held online. The Meteorological Organization has also announced that the air will remain polluted in metropolises and industrial and densely populated cities until the end of the week. Meanwhile, Mohammad Reza Zafarghandi, the Minister of Health of the Islamic Republic, stated on Tuesday that approximately 50,000 people die annually due to air pollution in Iran. He also mentioned that "the financial cost of air pollution is at least 12 billion dollars" and based on "some calculations," this figure could reach "20 billion dollars," adding: "I investigated air pollution and saw how much financial cost we incur from the ordinary human resources we lose. I also reported this to the government." Mohammad Sadegh Hasanvand, head of the Air Pollution Research Center at Tehran University of Medical Sciences, stated that 12 percent of deaths in Iran are due to air pollution. According to Hasanvand, air pollution is one of the serious risk factors and the most important environmental pollutant threatening public health.