Khuzestan lawmakers in the Majlis have asked the Department of Environment chief, Massoumeh Ebtekar, to attend a meeting next week in Parliament on the recent acid rain in Khuzestan Province that sent nearly 10,000 people to hospitals, Tasnim reported. “We’re going to inquire about the causes of the rain’s acidity and the DOE’s measures in response to the problem,” said Seyyed Sharif Hosseini, a Khuzestan lawmaker. The DOE rejects claims that the rain was acidic, citing “an unknown pathogen” as the cause. Last year, 16,000 people were hospitalized after the first precipitation in Ahvaz, the provincial capital of Khuzestan, Iran’s main southern oil producing region. The World Health Organization has ranked Ahvaz as one of the most polluted cities in the world.
