Zabol is a City and the Capital of the Zabol

County within the Sistan and Baluchestan Province of Iran. It is on the eastern border of Iran alongside Afghanistan. Here, around 132,000 live their everyday lives; however, it has greatly been affected by the rise of air pollution. The air has become contaminated by dust coming from the dry grounds. In the 1990s, an impactful drought occured Hamoon Lake, near Zabol. The lake unfortunately dried up due to the Persians changing the land from agricultural land to wasteland.

The aggressive winds, which occur because of the low amount of pressures, are moving the debris into the sky. Along with that, there is an event that occurs within the summer months called the ‘120 days winds’. Here, the winds blow at rates up to one hundred and twenty kilometers per hour for extended periods of time. As a result, huge clouds of dust blow around making it very difficult to breathe. These brutal dust storms affect around forty-three thousand five hundred people living with Zabol. After looking at data, most of the major dust storms are in the summer months: June, July, and August (Miri et al.). Despite that it being so high during the summer months, Persians living in the air experience dust storms year-round.

They also reported that doctors claimed in 2007, “33% of the population (132,000 people) was considered as patients that suffer from respiratory diseases caused by dust storms”. As a result of breathing in the dust, many different respiratory problems like Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease better known as COPD rise in locals. As the problem continues, the number of people it will affect will continue to rise not only in Zabol but around the world. Forty-three thousand five hundred people may not seem like a large out number of people compared to the world population; however, thousands are still becoming extremely sick and even dying because of this.

To put this into perspective, Zabol’s affected population is twice the number of people living in Paducah, Kentucky. That being said, it mainly affects the residences living in Zabol; however, it does affect more than just them. Winds bring polluted air to surrounding areas within Iran. The air, according to a study done by Aeolian Research, “The dust loading was measured using dust traps up to four and eight meters height (with a one-meter distance between the traps) at two locations near the Hamoun basin during the period August 2009 to July 2010” (Miri et al.).

Along with that research, the evidence found said that sixty-one percent of the days tested were at elevated health risks and thirty percent of that amount was also diagnosed as being exceedingly dangerous (Miri et al.). Many residents living here are exposed to a copious amount of health problems due to the harmful particulate matter within the air. As the winds become more intense, it begins to travel to neighboring countries. This problem is not just occuring in Zabol but happening all over the world, even in the United States of America.

Although many places experience air pollution, it can be caused by numerous things. For example, places like Saudi Arabia and India have very bad air quality but for different reasons. Not only does it affect the people on Earth, it as well damages other things we rely on such as farming. The World Meteorological Organization states, these dust storms decrease the percentage of usable crops, escalate erosion, and deprived plant tissues. Not only does it affect farming, it also affects water quality in nearby bodies of water (n.d.).

With the problem of air quality in Zabol, there is not any major environmental conflicts that is causing the air quality to become more hazardous. However, there could be some environmental racism within Iran from countries outside the Middle East. Many countries, including the United States of America, look down upon Iran since numerous countries do not have the best relationship with them. Since the 1900s, the United States of America along with other countries have created an embargo against Iran. These resources that are being cut off could potentially help clean Zabol’s air and help decrease the amount of deaths due to respiratory diseases. 

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