Attacks on fuel storage tanks and energy facilities in Iran’s Asaluyeh area released around 1.5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide, along with thousands of tonnes of other pollutants, Iran’s environmental chief Shina Ansari has said.

Axar.az reports, citing Iran’s IRNA news agency, that Ansari said the attacks released approximately 904 tonnes of particulate matter, 4,700 tonnes of volatile organic compounds and more than 13,000 tonnes of sulphur oxides over a period of several days.

She said the pollution levels were so high that they could have forced the evacuation of Tehran. However, she added that the high altitude of the atmospheric boundary layer prevented most of the pollution from reaching the city’s breathing zone.

In addition to these pollutants, around 1.5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent were released into the atmosphere, Ansari said. She compared the amount to the carbon absorbed by 66 million mature trees over an entire year, or the annual carbon emissions of 80,000 urban households and the yearly use of more than 320,000 passenger cars.

It should be noted that on March 18, Israeli forces struck gas facilities at the South Pars gas field in southern Iran and industrial infrastructure in Asaluyeh. In April, petrochemical facilities in the same area came under attack again.