Iran's Toxic Air Causes Anger, Disease

The story is short. Her 6-year old son has cancer. The mother recounts the moment she first heard the news, and speaks of the days that passed ever so slowly since. "At first it was like a simple cold, but it lasted for a while. Two weeks passed. He lost his appetite and became nauseous as well. We went to a doctor, who ordered tests, and then we were told my son had leukemia. It’s been four years now since we’ve been going to the doctors, taking medication, and doing chemotherapy."

The mother, like many Iranians, believes that air pollution is one of the main causes of cancer among Iranian children. While there are no statistics on the rise of cancer or exact numbers of those suffering from various cancers in different parts of Iran or even in the capital, some Iranians feel certain that the toxic air they breath – Tehran is the TK STAT – is responsible.

Vahid Noroozi, former director of the Central Vehicle Inspection Organization, said in 2009 that the risk of cancer among children living in highly polluted areas is 12 percent higher than children in the other parts of the country. Other figures whose work brings them into close contact with cancer rates anecdotally share this impression.

Rates of cancer among the children in Tehran’s Districts 1 and 6 are higher than the other districts in the capital, according to Mardavij Alebouyeh, a member of the Board of Trustees and Board of Directors of Mahak Society to Support Children with Cancer.

The country's parliament, when briefed by experts, raises similar concerns. According to Mohammad Reza Tabesh, chairman of the parliament's Environmental Faction, the increasing rate of childhood cancer will intensify over the next 10 years due to effects of emissions created by domestically produced gasoline.

But cancer is just one of the incurable diseases that affect children due to breathing polluted air. According to a Bahar newspaper report, doctors and specialists participating in a climate change workshop in December of last year spoke said that 35 percent of Tehran children display signs of allergies and asthma caused by air pollution in Tehran.

Pollution's chief effect on children is to cause respiratory diseases, Mansour Bahrami, a pediatrician, told Bahar.  "Fifty percent of the children who visited a doctor’s office during the heavily-polluted air days were suffering from chronic coughs,” he said.

The chest that burns

Many visitors to Tehran and Iran's other major cities will feel the physical toll of pollution shortly after arrival, often felt by headache, a burning sensation in the eyes and the chest, shortness of breath, and nausea. For residents who live permanently in these polluted conditions, temporary symptoms soon become chronic and persistent illnesses. According to Technical Deputy under the Torbat Heydariyeh Medical Sciences University Health Director, cancer and asthma are manifestations of long-term exposure to air pollution.

Nasrin is a resident of Tehran who underwent an open-heart surgery at the age of 54. Her doctors told her one of the reasons for her heart ailment was the air pollution. “After my surgery, the doctors told me to actively follow the news about air pollution, and if it was announced that the air quality was critical, not to leave the house” she said. “If I go out during the days when there is an air quality advisory, I would feel a strange burning sensation in my chest and I would feel nauseous all day.”

According to Mehrab Marzban, research committee coordinator of the Iranian Society of Cardiac Surgeons (ISCS), "patients with heart failure are at a higher risk than others during the polluted air days.” Marzban says those who have had open heart surgery visit health care centers more often during the polluted air days. He recommends his patients to keep room vaporizers in their homes so they can moisturize the indoor air to soften it a bit, reminding them that air pollution doesn't stop at the doors or window of a home.

Damage that goes beyond the lungs

The destructive effects of air pollution on the lungs are well known, but an excess of toxins in the air also poses major dangers for the heart. The board of the ISCS recently announced that the average age for developing coronary artery blockage has dropped by eight to ten years, and one of the causes of this drop is the air pollution.

According to a report by Khorassan News, quoting from the Fourth Middle East International Congress of Cardiology, individuals who already have underlying heart disease and a 70 percent coronary artery blockage will experience a 90 to 100 percent blockage, and an increased number of heart attacks will ensue as a result of air pollution and lack of proper oxygenation of the heart.

Mohammadreza Mohammad Hassani, a member of the Board of Directors of Tehran Medical Sciences University’s Heart Transplant and Cardiovascular Research Center told the Iranian Students News Agency (ISNA), “the ultra-fine dust in the air increases the risk of heart disease by 13 percent, and in a short time causes irregular heartbeats, increased blood pressure, dizziness, and headaches." Some experts relate indigestion, increased aggression, and loss of consciousness while driving, and the resultant accidents to the elevated levels of air pollutants.

According to a 2011 report by the World Health Organization (WHO) of a study about suspended particles (smaller than 10 microns), Tehran is ranked fifteenth among a number of researched Iranian cities. Ahvaz, Sanandaj, Kermanshah, Yasooj, Orumiyeh, Qom, Khorramabad, Ilam, Bushehr, Kerman, Qazvin, Isfahan, Hamedan, and Arak are ahead of Tehran in this study, and only three other cities, Mashhad, Shiraz, and Tabriz, have lower suspended particles than Tehran.

Air pollution, long associated mainly with Tehran, now affects Iranians across the country, yet there are no accurate statistics about their conditions and suffering. At the time the WHO report was published, some government officials challenged the number of deaths associated with air pollution, offering different and sometimes conflicting opinions in order to cover up the government’s shortcomings and mismanagement in this area.

Dirty cars, dirty gasoline

Vehicle are one of the chief sources of dirty emissions in Iran. Domestically produced automobiles do not conform to international emissions standards, and Iranians struggle to buy cards in a non-competitive market. In the past two years, domestically-produced gasoline has also become non-standard and a major source of air pollution.

More than 18 years have passed since the adoption of Iran’s Pollution Prevention Act. Many of the measures that were only sporadically applied to control air pollution were either stopped or delayed in 1999. Published reports show that the distributed diesel fuel in Iran creates a thousand times more air pollution than allowed by Iran's own standards.

The Iranian government repealed the law mandating that industrial units can no longer be established inside an 80-mile radius of Tehran. It announced two years later that Iran has reached self sufficiency in the production of gasoline. According to a member of the parliament’s Energy Commission, the domestically produced is too expensive and increases the risk of cancer. In addition, with the approval of the parliament, technical examinations of vehicles are now required once every three years, instead of every year, a law that protects the interests of the automobile manufacturing companies instead of the public.

For now, most Iranians simply want to know why the government isn't more accountable for regulating gasoline standards, and ultimately, who they should blame for the toxic air that is making Iranians sicker by the year. President Rouhani has pledged to make Iran more pluralistic and tolerant, but Iranians also want a country whose air they can breathe.