Tar Factory Closed for Odor

Last week, 72 residents of Khash city in Sistan-Baluchestan Province rushed to the Imam-Khomeini Hospital complaining of “life-threatening allergic reaction” to a pungent odor that smelled like sulfur.

Most of them were discharged after receiving the necessary treatment, said Dr. Mahmoud-Reza Miri, head of Zahedan’s University of Medical Sciences. The incident caused some anxious moments for residents of the area. According to Miri, no cases of the allergic reaction were reported in other provincial hospitals, ISNA reported.

Teams from the university were sent to investigate the strange smell. After a thorough probe in various places that led the teams to the local tar-making factory, poultry slaughterhouse, and even as far as the Taftan Volcano, the blame was laid on illegal activities at the tar-making factory, which was promptly shut down.