Timeline+of+regulations+to+combat+air+pollution

- Tehran governor announced publicly that the government is going to pass the air pollution master plan in Tehran and eight other metropolises. The title of the plan is “Comprehensive management of reducing air pollution in Tehran” and will run from 2012 to 2016. This plan will cover 11 topics and includes 23 legal actions and 52 regulations for 17 executive organizations. Based on the plan, to supervise the implementation of the legislations and legal decisions, a working group will be established with the goal of reducing air pollution in Tehran. Oil ministers, interior, agriculture, industry, mining and trade, energy, education, roads and urban development, health and medical education, Tehran governor, vice president of strategic planning and oversight, the mayor of Tehran , the head of IRIB, police chief and head of transportation and fuel management are members of this working group. The working group will be chaired by the vice president and head of environment protection organization and its decisions is as legal as government’s approvals. The main homepage of the plan is []  ( The website is not updated and many links are under construction)
 * 2011-2012: **

Yousef Rashidi, managing director of Tehran Air Quality Control Company told media that “although the master plan was prepared in 2000, it was not as complete and comprehensive as the 2012 plan. In all these years, the 2000 plan perhaps due to intentional or unintentional reasons was not followed and was forgotten. after all these years, the plan was again introduced” - The working group announced that the most recent decisions of the working group is implementing two plans: the first plan is “ __Manjil winds revival__” plan and the second one “ __controlling motorcycles through special tags and cameras__”. - The working group announced that ventilation systems will be installed in polluted areas order to reduce air pollution temporarily. - In their latest announcements, the working group claimed that pavement abrasion, brake pads and plate clutches exacerbate air pollution from vehicles. Therefore, the working group claimed that the environment protection organization is going to examine carefully the standards of the pavement production industry. - The establishment of “air pollution court” was suggested to the president by some high authority religious politicians. - Politicians announced publicly that the government is going to make some __changes in the temperature artificially__ in order to produce movements in the atmosphere and therefore reduce Tehran air pollution. Authorities claimed that this theory has been tested in a “small room” and the result was positive. Reaction of some experts to solutions such as changes in the temperature : “These solutions are simplistic and unsophisticated; reasonable solutions should be taken into action ; the first step is to reduce the “ sources “ of pollution”. These experts suggested several solutions such as: reducing the pollution produced by vehicles made inside the country, this can be achieved through approving stricter regulations for the vehicles manufactured domestically, increasing the quality of domestically manufactured fuels to reduce pollution made by these vehicles. The other solutions are promoting electronic government in order to reduce the traveling in the city and improving non motorized transportation facilities such as cycling and walking.” - Deputy of technical office of production in TAVANIR company ( this company is the half state half private company responsible for the production, transportation and distribution of electricity in Iran): Liquid fuel consumption has been stopped in all power plants in Tehran to reduce air pollution. Based on this new strategy, the energy needs of the four major plants in Tehran are supplied by natural gas. - In 2012 and 2011, all sand and pavement plants in the west and south-west of Tehran had to shut down for several days. - The odd and even regulation was implemented very strictly. - All polluting and smoking vehicles, including state and private especially bus and shuttle services of the state organizations are banned from travelling inside the city. - Almost 900 trucks were stopped from daily travelling in the city. <span style="font-family: Garamond,serif; font-size: 12pt;">- Tehran governor called on citizens to reduce the temperature of the heating systems of their house to reduce the concentration of air pollutants by 10 percent. <span style="font-family: Garamond,serif; font-size: 12pt;">- Raising petrol prices were suggested to reduce the traveling of private vehicles. <span style="font-family: Garamond,serif; font-size: 12pt;">- The plan to reduce the production of Tehran cement and North cement factories was the other decision of the working groups. <span style="font-family: Garamond,serif; font-size: 12pt;">- The working group announced that all technical examination centers in the province which issue fake technical examinations will be punished; the centers which commit this will be closed and will be introduced to the physical punishment of government organizations for further legal actions. <span style="font-family: Garamond,serif; font-size: 12pt;">Technical Examination Centers: Technical examination of vehicles was included in the traffic rules in 1974. In 1990, the committee of technical examination of vehicles in Tehran was established in Tehran Traffic and Transportation department. The first mechanized center of technical examination of vehicles in Tehran was established in 2000 and since that time six other centers have been established. <span style="font-family: Garamond,serif; font-size: 12pt;">- All state agencies, organizations, banks, universities and schools were shut down in Tehran several time in 2011 and 2012. This is the most common strategy that the government implements in the days when the pollution reaches its pick. <span style="font-family: Garamond,serif; font-size: 12pt;">- Deputy of the environmental protection organization said publicly that based on the new comprehensive plan to reduce air pollution, urban and transportation ministry is obliged to transfer all flights, international and domestic, to the Imam Khomeini’s airport. Mehrabad airport will be used for emergency missions and conditions. The plan has not been implemented to the date. ( Mehrabad is Iranian airport in the Azadi area which is one of the most polluted and crowded areas of Tehran. ) <span style="font-family: Garamond,serif; font-size: 12pt;">- Airplanes sprayed water on the Iranian capital of Tehran as part of the project to curb the lingering air pollution. These airplanes sprayed about 2000 liters of water at each take-off. ( continued in 2011) <span style="font-family: Garamond,serif; font-size: 12pt;">- Tehran governor told that the IEPO is going to design ventilation and air conditioner systems to be installed in about a hundred polluted spots of the capital. <span style="font-family: Garamond,serif; font-size: 12pt;">- <span style="font-family: Garamond,serif; font-size: 12pt;">Iran's Environment Protection Organization (IEPO) announced that its scientists are trying to find ways to shake up the atmosphere to produce rain or create artificial wind corridors to blow the thick haze away. <span style="font-family: Garamond,serif; font-size: 12pt;"> Executive committee for reducing Tehran air pollution was cancelled. However, right wing media argued that just the head of the committee has changed and now the governor is now the head of the committee. Before this chance, environment organization was the head of the committee.
 * <span style="font-family: Garamond,serif; font-size: 12pt;">Manjil winds revival **<span style="font-family: Garamond,serif; font-size: 12pt;">: During the past fifty years, many buildings were built in the west part of Tehran . These buildings stopped the movement of winds from the Manjil area to the central part of Tehran. Manjil is in north of Iran and is a very windy region. Based on this plan, any constructions in the direction of Manjil wind will be banned legally. The working group argued that given that the direction of the wind is from west to eat, therefore if the height of buildings in the West of Tehran exceeds the limit, the wind movement to the center of city would be restricted, therefore air pollution will increase.
 * <span style="font-family: Garamond,serif; font-size: 12pt;">2010 = **
 * <span style="font-family: Garamond,serif; font-size: 12pt;"> 2008= **

<span style="font-family: Garamond,serif; font-size: 12pt;">In the fall of 2007, “ Tehran traffic and transportation master plan” was approved. In regard to reduce air pollution, this master plan aimed at expanding and improving the quality of public transportations, phasing out old vehicles and producing hybrid vehicles and compressed natural gas. In addition to this, the plan aimed at increasing green spaces surrounding streets, constructing sidewalks in commercial areas of the city, changing all existing gasoline taxies to hybrid cars and imposing new regulations for vehicles based on their fuel consumption and pollution emissions. <span style="font-family: Garamond,serif; font-size: 12pt;">- In this year, all international flights, except flights to Mekah, Saudi Arabia, were transferred to Imam Khomeini International airport. Before this, all international flights were <span style="font-family: Garamond,serif; font-size: 12pt;">Odd and Even regulation was passed. Based on this regulatory system, vehicles are allowed to drive in “ traffic plan zones”, which is the most crowded and polluted parts of the city, based on their license number right digit being even or odd. <span style="font-family: Garamond,serif; font-size: 12pt;">The 2000 pan was covering just the quality of fuels and public transportation, therefore in 2004, the plan was revised and some new topics were added. But this revision was never applied and approved. The reason according to the managing director of Tehran air quality office is that environment was not a priority for high authorties. <span style="font-family: Garamond,serif; font-size: 12pt;">- A program titled” A comprehensive plan to combat air pollution in Tehran: was passed in 2000. Based on this plan, within 10 years, Tehran’s air should be healthy and breathable. This program includes seven sub goals: standardization of new vehicles, phasing out old vehicles, improving public transportation, improving fuel quality, technical examination fo vehicles, traffic management and public education. This program was carried out by the ministry of environment in cooperation with the ministry of industry, ministry of petroleum, municipality of Tehran and the traffic police. <span style="color: #984806; font-family: Garamond,serif; font-size: 12pt;">P.S: At this time, reformists had power and many scholars believed that as a result of a reformist government, the plan was introduced.
 * <span style="font-family: Garamond,serif; font-size: 12pt;">2007= **
 * <span style="font-family: Garamond,serif; font-size: 12pt;">2005: **
 * <span style="font-family: Garamond,serif; font-size: 12pt;">2004 : **
 * <span style="font-family: Garamond,serif; font-size: 12pt;">2000= **

<span style="font-family: Garamond,serif; font-size: 12pt;">The first warnings about Tehran air pollution was introduced 16 years ago. At that time nearly one hundred experts of the environment, geography and urban planning programs published a text titled” Tehran air 95”. In this text, for the first time, Tehran air pollution was called as a “ national crisis”.
 * <span style="font-family: Garamond,serif; font-size: 12pt;">1995 : **

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