https://phys.org/news/2025-12-
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Iran's record drought and cheap fuel have sparked an air pollution crisis—but the real causes run much deeper
by Sanam Mahoozi, Nima Shokri and Salome M. S. Shokri-Kuehni, The Conversation
edited by Gaby Clark, reviewed by Andrew Zinin
Credit: AhmadReza Pishnamazi from PexelsAir pollution is the latest environmental crisis causing havoc across Iran. Large parts of the country are already suffering from a drought, one of the worst in decades. Its wetlands are dry, and its land is subsiding at alarming rates.
Now the fallout is also affecting the air that the country's more than 85 million people breathe. As lakes, wetlands, and riverbeds dry out, their exposed surfaces turn into major sources of dust. Strong winds can lift this dust and transport it across cities and even distant regions.
The extremely dry conditions have worsened Iran's already high levels of air pollution. In recent weeks, the capital Tehran was ranked as the most polluted city in the world, according to global air quality monitors. In November, its air quality index hit 200—a level classified as "very unhealthy".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
The terrible air quality has forced authorities to close schools, universities and offices to reduce exposure. Hospitals are reporting rising numbers of cases of respiratory and cardiac complications across the country.
Local media have reported more than 350 deaths within ten days linked to worsening air quality in recent weeks. Demand for emergency services in the capital has also increased by more than 30% during November 2025, according to local statistics.
Other major Iranian cities, including Tabriz, Mashhad and Isfahan, have recorded readings above 150 in the last few weeks. These levels are considered dangerous for all age groups. In Ahvaz and Zabol, air pollution from sand and dust storms has blanketed the southern cities, putting lives and livelihoods at risk.
Studies indicate more than 59,000 Iranians die prematurely every year from air pollution-related illnesses.
As well as dust rising from dried out lakes and wetlands, aging cars and low-quality fuel in Iran's major cities are contributing to the air pollution.
But focusing on these causes misses the bigger picture.
Iran's air-pollution emergency is caused by the same governance failures that have destabilized the nation's water systems, emptied its aquifers, dried out its wetlands, and accelerated land subsidence.
Just as Iran's water crisis is not simply the result of drought, Iran's polluted air is not simply the product of traffic.
In most major cities, a key burden comes from pollutants (such as nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide, and fine particulates produced by burning low-quality fuel) as well as outdated engines, and heavy industrial fuels such as mazut.
These toxic emissions accumulate in cities and directly contribute to respiratory disease, and cardiovascular illness. Recent global satellite analyses, which are currently being reviewed by the journal Nature Cities, suggest that most mega cities (population more than 10 million) with significant levels of nitrogen dioxide pollution in the lower atmosphere (the layer of air we breathe) have cut pollution levels in recent years.
However, Tehran is among the few large cities worldwide where these concentrations have increased between 2019 and 2024.
But combustion engines in old cars are only half the story. In many regions, a substantial share of PM₁₀ and PM₂.₅ (particles smaller than 10 micrometers and 2.5 micrometers which penetrate the lungs and bloodstream) now originates from dust and salt storms generated by shrinking lakes, rivers and wetlands. These particles can travel hundreds or even thousands of kilometers within hours, affecting cities far beyond their points of origin.
Our research, on Lake Urmia—once the Middle East's largest saltwater lake—shows this clearly: as the lake bed dried, salt-laden dust plumes were capable of traveling hundreds of kilometers and even crossing national borders in less than 12 hours. This is a vivid illustration of how tightly Iran's water crisis is intertwined with its air-pollution crisis.
Key causes of Iran's air pollution
Iran's air-pollution problem is not just a transport problem, a technological shortfall or a meteorological misfortune. It is fundamentally the predictable outcome of decades of government priorities, distorted incentives, and institutional inertia.
First, Iran's government priorities have shaped a foreign policy that ultimately led to international sanctions and deepened the country's economic and international isolation.
This isolation has had direct environmental consequences. It restricts access to modern air‑quality monitoring systems, industrial filtration technologies, and low‑emission engines, while deterring the foreign investment needed to upgrade transport and industry.
As a result, while other countries have reduced NO₂ and particulate pollution through cleaner technologies and tighter standards, Iran's options remain severely limited by the political choices that produced its isolation.
Second, Iran's extremely low fuel prices, sustained by immense subsidies, have made the national economy dependent on cheap energy, a key driver of the country's inefficient electricity generation and excessive consumption. Vehicles with fuel inefficiencies unimaginable elsewhere remain commercially viable.
This is not an accidental policy outcome. It is part of a broader economic cycle in which subsidized fuel sustains outdated domestic car production and high-emitting industries, some of which are tied to powerful institutions whose financial interests depend on maintaining the status quo.
Nitrogen oxide levels in Iran (tonnes):
Resetting national priorities
Many countries have cut urban pollution through stricter emissions standards, cleaner transport, and integrated city planning, but Iran cannot do this without addressing the structural forces driving its emissions.
Reversing Iran's air-quality crisis requires a fundamental shift in government priorities, placing environmental security and public health at the center of policymaking. Iran's challenge is not technical capacity but distorted incentives and national priorities. Only by reducing international isolation, strengthening transparency, and dismantling subsidy-driven distortions can Iran unlock the technologies and investment needed to clean its air.
Once these structural barriers are addressed, real progress becomes possible. This would include gradually changing fuel prices to curb high-emission vehicles, restoring access to global technology and finance to modernize the vehicle fleet and public transport, and reviving wetlands, lakes, and soils through water-governance reform to cut dust pollution.
Complementing these measures with advanced satellite monitoring, AI-based analysis, air monitoring stations, and better urban planning.
The air is not polluted because Iranians drive too much—it is polluted because the system that shapes the country's priorities and choices is broken.
Three children dead in Iran protests as security forces accused of ‘indiscriminate targeting’
Escalating protests sparked by economic chaos have seen at least 20 people killed and nearly 1,000 arrested, say human rights groups
At least three children are reported to have been killed and more than 40 minors arrested after eight days of the ongoing protests across Iran, as human rights groups accuse the regime’s security forces of “indiscriminate targeting of civilians”.
The nationwide uprising sparked by the collapse of the country’s currency and rising living costs has spread to at least 78 cities and 222 locations, with demonstrators calling for the end of the regime, according to the US-based Human Rights Activists in Iran (HRAI).
The protests continued over the weekend despite a worsening crackdown by security forces after comments from the country’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, who addressed protesters as “rioters”. So far, 990 people have been arrested and at least 20 killed, according to HRAI.
Among the minors reportedly killed was Mostafa Falahi, a 15-year-old from the city of Azna, in central Iran. The Oslo-based Hengaw Organization for Human Rights said Falahi had been killed when security forces opened fire on protesters on 1 January. The group also reported the death of another minor, 17-year-old Rasul Kadivarian, who was killed along with his 20-year-old brother, Reza, on 3 January when security forces fired directly on protesters in the city of Kermanshah.
A third child, a 17-year-old whose death was reported by state media in the city of Qom, in central Iran, has also been confirmed by human rights groups, who said their identity had yet to be verified.
Skylar Thompson, deputy director of HRAI, told the Guardian the group had documented the killings, as well as the arrests of at least 44 children.
“These numbers provide clear evidence that youth are present throughout the ongoing protests. The indiscriminate targeting of a civilian population must be widely condemned as a violation of international law, especially with the clear illustration of children present,” Thompson said.
During the Woman, Life, Freedom protests in Iran in 2022 more than 500 people were reportedly killed, including at least 60 children, some as young as eight years old.
Speaking on the condition of anonymity, a witness from the district of Malekshahi, in Ilam, western Iran, said crowds over the weekend had been chanting anti-government slogans and demanding the release of protesters already detained.
“We then gathered in front of a government building. That was when the forces opened fire on us. It felt as if they were shooting at enemies or armed groups. I felt like I was in a war zone. I saw several people injured, and I believe some were killed on the spot. We tried to take the wounded to hospitals and prevent government forces from arresting injured protesters,” the witness said.
Human rights groups reported late Saturday and Sunday night that the security forces had raided and attacked the Khomeini hospital in the city of Ilam, western Iran, where injured protesters had been taken.
Awyar Shekhi from Hengaw, said: “State forces are firing directly at gatherings and protests without regard for whether those targeted are children or adults. The crackdowns are brutal: teargas and military-grade weapons are being used, and detainees are severely beaten before being transferred to undisclosed locations.”
Another witness from Qom said the security forces could see there were teenagers and children among the protesters, “but that didn’t stop them from firing pellets, teargas and gunfire. The whole situation is only getting more deadly.”
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