Tehran's offices and educational and industrial centers will be closed due to the high level of dust pollution in the Iranian capital.

Tehran's Committee for Coordinating Emergency Air Pollution announced that all offices and educational centers in the province would be closed on July 7, 2009 and its industrial centers would be closed from July 7 to 9.

Dust storms raising from the desert lands in Iraq and Saudi Arabia have hit Iran's western and southwestern areas, including the provinces of Qom, Kurdistan, Chahar-Mahal and Bakhtiari, Zanjan and Fars.

Director of Tehran's Air Quality Control Company (AQCC) Yousef Rashidi warned people on Monday about the dangerous impact of pollution on the respiratory and cardiac systems.

The committee also announced that while sports activities and using personal vehicles would be limited in Tehran Province, all university exams would be hold according to schedule.

Nearly all tall buildings and the Alborz mountainsides have been wrapped up in dust and the field of vision has greatly decreased in Tehran.

Many domestic flights have been cancelled due to thick dust and dozens of people have been taken to hospitals for respiratory and heart problems.

TE/HGH