Schools in Tehran will be closed for two days, state media said Saturday, following air pollution three times the acceptable level that has blanketed the city in smog.
Air quality in Iran’s capital was the worst in at least nine months this week, state media said, and floating particles from car emissions were at “seven times the standard level.”
The Air Quality Index on Monday showed an average reading of 162 — a “red status” warning that the air is unhealthy for everyone, according to World Health Organization standards, AFP reported.
A normal healthy level is between zero and 50.
Peak pollution hit 180 in some areas of Tehran, where poor air is worsened due to high altitudes — between 1,100 and 1,700 meters above sea level — in a basin surrounded by mountains.
Visibility was low as a grey fog blanketed the capital, a megacity of an estimated 14 million people.
The snow-capped mountains of the Alborz range were invisible from the city center.
In 2012, pollution contributed to the premature deaths of 4,500 people in Tehran and about 80,000 in the country, according to the regime’s health ministry.