Increase in their numbers has caused worsening of respiratory diseases: Baghdadis breathe exhaust from millions of vehicles

Fatima Karim

Salem’s coughing sound stopped everyone passing by. He coughed as he tried to grab onto something to help him stand, feeling dizzy. He sat on the street floor as if taking his last breaths. In a low voice, after the smoke had exhausted his chest, he said, “When will we get rid of cars… when will we breathe clean air? I swear I’m tired.”

Salem Mohammed is a seventeen-year-old boy who works at the intersection of Aden Square in Baghdad, selling cleaning cloth pieces used for cleaning glass. He sells them to car owners to make a living. Salem is a hardworking student alongside his work and says, “I work during the holiday all day, and during school days, I come here after leaving school and work half the day.”

Salem suffers from several respiratory diseases due to the toxins released by vehicles that fill the air. Millions breathe it in, causing many illnesses among people.

Salem is not alone in suffering from the air pollution problem caused by car exhaust. There are about more than a million people in Baghdad alone who suffer from suffocation, difficulty breathing, respiratory system failure, and heart diseases, as stated by the official spokesperson of the Ministry of Health, Dr. Saif Al-Badr. He says, “The problem of air pollution due to car exhaust is one of the biggest problems we face in the modern era, which is the main cause of respiratory diseases and climate change.”

The process of burning gasoline or diesel interacts with other gases and sunlight, increasing greenhouse gas levels, which is the most dangerous for humans. It causes blood diseases, lymphatic gland issues, allergies, asthma, and lung failure. Salem says, “Every time I leave the house, I don’t know where I’ll end up – at work or at the health center.” On many occasions, Salem is transferred to the health center near his area due to severe choking episodes that occur while he’s going to school. Salem’s route passes through crowded roads where pollution levels increase, and he inhales these fumes from early morning until he’s revived on an oxygen machine.

The air quality index in Iraq has started to decline due to the spread of toxic emissions that negatively affect individuals’ health. 80% of deaths were caused by respiratory diseases for people living in air-polluted environments. The World Health Organization has clarified that about seven million deaths worldwide are directly caused by car exhaust. This type of pollutant is distinguished from other forms of pollution by its rapid spread, as its effect is not limited to a specific area but extends to neighboring and distant areas.

There are ten monitoring stations in Baghdad alone to measure the percentage of pollutants, as explained by Ali Jaber, director of the Antennas Department at the Ministry of Environment. These stations monitor pollutants in various areas distributed in regions with high pollution rates such as Al-Dora Al-Waziriya, Jadriya, Kadhimiya, and other areas. The Iraqi Parliament has approved the Ambient Air Protection from Pollution System No. 4 of 2012, which includes environmental protection measures for continuous air quality assessment.

Ruqayya Ali, one of the victims of climate and air pollution from the Al-Waziriya area in Baghdad, says, “I have lived in an unhealthy and polluted environment since birth due to the high pollution rate in the place where I live, in addition to the car exhaust pollutants that I face all the time when I’m outside.” Ruqayya faces many difficulties outside due to the significant pollution in her environment’s air, its rapid spread, inhalation, and impact on health. She suffers from lung infections, eye irritation, and mucosal fear of the respiratory tract. She says, “Despite my constant commitment to wearing a mask trying to protect my health from emissions, it’s in vain. The number of cars on Baghdad’s streets has become intolerable, and the rate of inhaling these fumes is greater… we are killing ourselves by ourselves.”

There is a clear increase in pollutant concentrations at the Andalus Square site, due to the nature of activities and emission sources in the area. Al-Waziriya is characterized by the presence of many government departments, service facilities, hospitals, high traffic density, and increased vehicle exhaust emissions.

In light of this, Brigadier General Ziyad Al-Qaisi, director of Media and General Traffic, spoke about the number of cars. Baghdad alone contains four million vehicles including “cars, trucks, motorcycles, and tuk-tuks,” which are designed to accommodate less than a quarter of the number.

The clear effect of traffic congestion and the uncontrolled increase in the number of vehicles leads to a rise in the concentration of most pollutants, thus deteriorating air quality. The damage doubles during seasonal or daily peak times associated with school and university hours, and the absence of a strategic vision to find and develop mass transportation means and update the basic infrastructure for highways and ring roads according to the principles of urban planning and sustainable environmental development.

The emissions of these four million vehicles affect not only Salem and Ruqayya but all the country’s residents. One of the first causes of these fumes and the increase in the percentage of toxic gases is the quality of gasoline or diesel used. Today, there are three types of petroleum products: regular, improved, and super gasoline, with octane percentages of 65%, 95%, and 98% respectively.

As stated by the director of petroleum products distribution, Hussein Talib, there are 64 government gas stations and 145 private ones in Baghdad, distributed on both sides of Karkh and Rusafa, and there are about 50 stations under completion. Hussein Talib says, “We are working hard to provide high-purity gasoline at competitive prices, knowing that super gasoline is imported in hard currency.” There are two stations to supply super gasoline: the Musa Ibn Naseer station in Rusafa and the Al-Risala station in Karkh, while the rest of the stations provide improved gasoline.

Salem continues to sell rags to car owners that cause his suffocation, placing one of them on his head wrapped several times to prevent these fumes from leaking into his body. He’s investing the semester break to provide his expenses to support himself and his family by selling these rags amidst this pollution.

Ruqayya continues to wake up early to go to her university, putting her mask on her nose, and says, “The mask has become a part of me, I can’t go out without it.” Her colleague comments jokingly on her words, “We don’t know what she looks like if she doesn’t wear the mask, I can’t recognize her.”

The harms of pollution are not limited to the elderly only, but also affect children because their breathing rate is faster, which increases the speed of gases reaching the blood and thus the speed of poisoning and suffocation.

“My house overlooks the street. I can’t even open my windows for fear of my child. He’s young and has allergies and asthma,” says Umm Yasar after vehicles choked her child who is still four years old.

Umm Yasar complains and recounts her suffering with air pollution and what these fumes cause. The black dust does not leave her house and fills her windows and floor until she developed a cleaning obsession, in addition to its effect on their health, especially the health of her child Yasar, who now suffers from chronic asthma.

She says, “He goes through constant choking episodes, so I rush him to the hospital trying to save him.”

Anyone who sees Umm Yasar sees how her heart is wringing with pain for her child who is still young. This is what millions suffer from due to deadly car exhaust and its dangers to the environment, climate, and human health. One of the toxic gases released by cars is carbon monoxide, which contributes to 80% of its emissions.

It has been found that each car emits more than 5,000 thousand cubic meters per hour of carbon monoxide gas, which causes poisoning when inhaled and sometimes death if the patient is not treated quickly. Ali Jaber at the Ministry of Environment says,

“We must be aware of the dangers caused by car exhaust and its impact on our health, and also find possible solutions that reduce pollution problems and severity.

Solutions that can reduce pollution and preserve the climate include supporting afforestation and combating desertification, supporting the green belt project in Baghdad governorate and other governorates, using clean and renewable energy and reducing dependence on traditional energy sources, helping to establish concepts of social awareness of the need to rely on environmentally friendly mass transportation means. The pollution rate from car exhaust constitutes about 23% of the general pollution rate,” says the spokesperson of the Ministry of Health, Dr. Saif Al-Badr. “During the Corona pandemic period, the pollution rate decreased by 30%-35%.

This indicates that pollution can be controlled if we follow the right solutions and reduce our use of environmentally harmful materials.

There is also joint cooperation between the Ministry of Health and Environment on a new system for mobile inspection of vehicle damage.”

Brigadier General Ziyad in Traffic added that there are laws that include financial penalties for owners of vehicles that emit large amounts of smoke due to a defect in the vehicle that has not been addressed by the vehicle owners, and this is one of the safety and security conditions. He says there are environmentally friendly vehicles that have entered Iraq that run on electricity and solar energy, and they are exempted from customs to support the environment and encourage people to acquire them.

The spread of ring roads around cities leads to reducing the number of vehicles entering cities, especially Baghdad, taking measures to reduce traffic congestion and the impact of their emissions on the environment, and setting a ceiling for the number of vehicles in line with the absorptive capacity of roads, and relocating and scrapping old vehicle models. One of the solutions that the Ministry of Oil is working on is the manufacture of new environmentally friendly fuel with a high purity rate and providing it in all gas stations and offering it at low prices to encourage its purchase.

He was joking with his colleagues at work and voices were rising between them, but Salem, whose voice sounds like a man in his sixties who smokes heavily, his voice polluted like the atmosphere, smiles sadly and says, “My health recovers when we breathe clean air.”

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