Tehran Air Control Company: The Capital's Air is More Polluted Compared to Last Year

The Tehran Air Control Company has announced that the air quality in the capital has been 'more polluted' compared to last year, based on new statistics released. The report states that the air in the capital has been 33% polluted over the past 154 days of the year (up to August 21), while last year it was 25% polluted. On Wednesday, August 22, the air quality in three areas of Tehran was also declared 'red', and according to the Tehran Air Quality Control Company, the current air pollution index in the capital stands at 109, indicating that the air quality remains unhealthy for sensitive groups. The Tehran Air Control Company has identified dust production sources and unprecedented temperature increases since early August as factors exacerbating Tehran's air pollution. This claim comes as official statistics from the Ministry of Oil, recently obtained by Radio Farda, show that the Iranian government has significantly increased the volume of non-standard additives in gasoline to compensate for fuel shortages. Confidential statistics from this report indicate that while gasoline consumption in the country grew by 10.5% last year, refinery gasoline production only increased by 1.5%, and this situation worsened at the beginning of spring this year, with daily gasoline production at refineries in Farvardin (March-April) being 93 million liters and gasoline consumption at 118 million liters. The average temperature in Iran has increased by 'about three degrees' over the past three decades. In Farvardin this year, the government added 25 million liters of various additives or gasoline produced by petrochemical units to the base gasoline from refineries to prevent gasoline shortages; for comparison, the amount of additives in gasoline last year was 15 million liters and only five million liters in 1397 (2018-2019). The reason for such a significant jump in the growth of the composition of additives in gasoline is the four million liter drop in daily gasoline production at the country's refineries at the beginning of this year and the continued growth in domestic gasoline consumption. It is not exactly clear what the status of base gasoline production, the volume of non-standard additives (including chemicals, petrochemicals, MTBE, etc.), and gasoline consumption has been this summer. On the other hand, domestic car manufacturers produced 1.5 million vehicles last year and sent them to the domestic market. Besides low quality and safety, the fuel consumption of domestically produced vehicles in Iran is also much higher than global standards, which contributes to increased fuel consumption and more air pollution. Iran is also facing an increasing gas shortage and each year increases the consumption of polluting fuels such as mazut and diesel due to gas shortages. The head of the Health, Environment, and Urban Services Commission of the Tehran City Council criticized the government's 'concealment of mazut burning' in power plants last year, stating that in 1400 (2021-2022), the number of deaths due to air pollution in Tehran was 6,398.