Tehran’s Air Pollution in the Last Decade of the Second Pahlavi Monarchy (Challenges and Solutions)

Tehran’s air pollution is not a recent issue and goes back to the early period of the second Pahlavi monarchy. The increasing use of fossil fuels and other air pollutants in big cities such as Tehran caused many problems. Hence, a long-term strategy was deemed necessary more than ever. For the first time, an environmental protection program was introduced as a separate chapter in the fifth development plan, which dealing with air pollution was one of its specific purposes. Improving public health, providing adequate environmental conditions, and reducing economic losses and social damages due to air pollution. Using the historical research method and based on archival documents and other historical sources, this study aims to investigate Tehran’s air pollution in the last decade of the reign of Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi. The results show that despite the increase in oil revenues in the second Pahlavi monarchy, the construction of subways and urban trains was not one of the government’s priorities, insofar as the problem of Tehran’s air pollution became a tangled web. On the other hand, the results from Iranian and foreign research at the time showed that vehicle pollutants played an important part in air pollution. Subsequently, as one of the most important proposals for controlling pollution, a traffic control program was proposed and then put on the government’s agenda.