 Iran closes capital's schools due to air pollution Tehran (AFP) Dec 19, 2015 - Iran is to close schools for two days in Tehran, an official said on 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 for at least nine months this week, media said, and airborne particles from car emissions were at "seven times the standard level". "All schools will be closed on Sunday in Tehran and in the... towns of Shahr-Rey and Islam-Shahr (both south of the capital)," said environment official Mohammad Hadi Heydarzadeh. "If the pollution continues, schools will also be closed on Monday," he said on state television. Traffic will be limited in the city centre and some factories will be closed, media reported. The official IRNA news agency said that schools will also shut in Alborz province, west of Tehran. Authorities have asked state employers to grant mothers time off to look after children who will be unable to go to school and urged the elderly, children and sick people to avoid going outdoors. Emergency services have also been mobilised. In December 2014, almost 400 people were hospitalised with heart and respiratory problems caused by heavy pollution in Tehran, with nearly 1,500 others requiring treatment. 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. On Saturday it had dropped slightly to 148, still well above the normal healthy level of 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 metres (3,600-5,600 feet) above sea level -- in a basin surrounded by mountains. - 'We cannot breathe' - Visibility was low Saturday as a grey fog blanketed the capital, a megacity of an estimated 14 million people, and authorities said they expect pollution to worsen in the coming days. Exhaust fumes from five million cars and almost as many motorcycles that ply Tehran's roads each day make up 80 percent of its pollution, which increases in winter as emissions fail to rise above cold air. "We cannot breathe. My eyes are itchy and my head hurts," said a taxi driver who only gave his first name, Khosro. "Traffic is getting worse each day, it is stifling. It is like there is a grey haze hanging over the city. We can't seen the mountains," he said referring to the snow-capped Alborz range that overlooks Tehran. Iran's government has tried to cut pollution by supplying lower emission fuel in large cities, Masoumeh Ebtekar, a vice president responsible for environmental protection, said this week. In 2012, pollution contributed to the premature deaths of 4,500 people in Tehran and about 80,000 in the country, the health ministry said. According to the office in charge of monitoring air quality, the air in Tehran was "pure for only 219 days" during the past 16 years.
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Beijing issued its second-ever red alert for smog and put its emergency response plan into action once again as severe pollution hit China's capital on Saturday.
The notice from the capital's environmental bureau ordered factories to close and pulled half of all private cars off the streets, among other measures, as bad air flooded into the city for the third "airpocalypse" of the month.
The red alert, the highest tier of a four-colour warning system, will last from Saturday to Tuesday, according to a statement on the Beijing Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau's website.
It is the second time the highest level alert has been issued since the city established a pollution warning system in 2013.
Counts of PM2.5 -- harmful microscopic particles that penetrate deep into the lungs -- were above 260 micrograms per cubic metre earlier Saturday, according to the US embassy, which issues independent readings.
The World Health Organisation's recommended maximum exposure is 25 over a 24-hour period.
By mid-afternoon the reading lowered to 140, but the pungent smelling smog still reduced visibility in the capital even though the streets were not as clogged with vehicles as usual.
"Environmental protection is an important objective the Chinese government has been firmly working on," foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei said at a regular scheduled briefing in Beijing.
But, he added: "We are still facing some challenges in environmental protection".
The national environmental bureau said that other cities in the region would raise their alert level to red, adding it had urged regional governments to "implement heavy air pollution emergency response measures".
- Excercising in smog -
The soupy haze did not turn off several elderly people who headed to Beijing's parks and public squares to do their morning exercises.
But residents on social media were seemingly more bothered by the latest bout of heavy haze and said the government was not doing enough to tackle the problem.
"Whether or not I drive my petrol car has little to do with the main causes of smog," one user on China's Twitter equivalent Weibo said.
"If alternating traffic is effective in controlling smog, why not set it up permanently?" said another commenter.
Beijing issued its first-ever red alert on December 7, declaring emergency pollution measures following scathing public criticism of the city's weak response to choking smog that settled on the city earlier in the month.
PM2.5 rates regularly exceeded 300 micrograms per cubic metre during the last red alert.
Beijing lifted the alert on December 10, after winds from the north dispersed the bad air, leaving skies clear and blue.
During an earlier airpocalypse at the beginning of the month, PM2.5 levels climbed to as high as 600 micrograms per cubic metre but the government did not issue a red alert, prompting strong public criticism.
Most of the country's greenhouse gas emissions come from the burning of coal for electricity and heating -- particularly when demand peaks in winter -- which is also the key cause of smog.
The recurrent pollution has driven Beijing residents to hospitals in growing numbers, according to a report on Internet giant Tencent's news portal.
During the last month's periods of severe pollution, it said, trips to medical facilities using hailing app Didi Kuaidi -- backed by Tencent -- went from 3.4 percent of all journeys to 4.1 percent, an increase of more than a fifth.
The report also cited online retailer JD.com as saying pollution mask sales soared by as much as 400 percent in response to the bad air.
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