Hospital Visits Have Doubled In Tehran Due To Rising Pollution
Visits to hospital emergency rooms in Tehran has doubled due to air pollution in the capital, causing shortness of breath, chest pain, headaches, and dizziness.
Visits to hospital emergency rooms in Tehran has doubled due to air pollution in the capital, causing shortness of breath, chest pain, headaches, and dizziness.
The head of Tehran province's emergency department confirmed an increase in public calls to the emergency department on cold and polluted days, saying that more than twenty-six thousand people with respiratory and heart problems have called Tehran Emergency in recent days.
The head of Tehran Emergency has explained that most calls in this regard are about five-year-old children and people over 55 years old with underlying health problems such as asthma.
The volume of calls is also higher in busy urban areas, Tehran's Grand Bazaar area, and the city center.
Air pollution in Iran is not limited to the capital, and many cities have been grappling with this problem for years.
The private and public vehicle fleets in Iran are mostly old and inefficient, producing air pollution. Gasoline in Iran is the second cheapest in the world and cities experience traffic jams with 20-30 year old cars, buses and trucks on the roads. Iran also uses diesel in power generation in large cities, which adds to air pollution.
According to Etemad newspaper in Tehran, there were only two clean days in the capital in 2022, and according to statistics from previous years, the number of clean days has been decreasing.
This newspaper predicted that in the not too distant future, having healthy air will be an impossible dream and at the same time emphasized that government agencies make no effort to enforce clean-air regulations.
As a result of persistent pollution, more than twenty thousand Iranians lose their lives each year.
Photos emerged on social media on Saturday that showed black-veiled women forming a human tunnel, which many now refer to as ‘tunnel of horrors’, at one of Tehran’s main subway stations to make sure women wear proper hijab. Similar surveillance and enforcement have also been reported at other stations.
Since May, the capital’s subway stations have been the battleground of women who are against compulsory hijab and various hijab enforcers as well as some ordinary citizens who consider it their duty to force others to abide by the rules.
The women who wore green shoulder sashes with the words “guidance ambassadors” written on them stopped women who were not wearing headscarves to admonish them for breaking the compulsory hijab rules.
Responding to reporters’ questions on the topic after the weekly cabinet meeting on Wednesday, Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi declared that citizens’ groups were only carrying out ‘amr-e be marouf' for which everyone is responsible.
The phrase refers to a pious Muslim’s duty to urge others to avoid forbidden deeds and carry out what conforms with religious rules.
“We have not issued any particular permits for [their work],” Vahidi who is second in command of the police force after Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, claimed while insisting that that all citizens have a religious duty to carry out ‘amr-e be marouf’ but this can only involve “nicely worded” verbal exhortation.
“Interesting! So, this tunnel of horrors at the metro is a citizens’ [initiative]!” Mostafa Faghihi, the managing director of the moderate conservative Entekhab news website tweeted Wednesday in reaction to Vahidi’s claim.
“Do people also pay their monthly salary? Are they also hired and organized under citizens’ supervision? No authorization required? How democratic and free!” Faghihi wrote referring to reports in August that Tehran municipality was planning to hire 400 uniformed hijab enforcers to deploy at subway stations of the capital.
Speaking to Faraz Daily news website, an official of the Tehran Metro Company had also earlier denied that that hijab enforcers are officially active in Tehran subway. Hadi Zand, head of international affairs and communications of Tehran Metro Company, told Faraz Daily that the company only has uniformed security personnel who are responsible for dealing with various issues including peddlers and ensuring the security of the subway system.
Many, including prominent reformist commentator Abbas Abdi, have raised objections to the deployment of ‘Hijab Patrols’ in Tehran’s subway stations, the police force’s use of CCTV to identify hijab infringers and recording their images.
In a commentary written for the reformist Etemad newspaper Tuesday, Abdi warned the authorities that that measures such as creating hijab enforcers “tunnels” in the subway corridors would only deepen the gap between the people and the authorities and increases public anger and hatred.
He also argued that introducing hijab enforcers as “guidance ambassadors” is unjustified because governments in the modern world are not mandated to guide people and the police is only responsible for establishing order. Hijab enforcers are municipality employees or police who act based on the orders they receive and get paid for their work like other employees, he said.