The Ministry of Planning held a workshop on the smog phenomenon and its impact on population health. The Director General of the Department of Human Development, Dr. Maha Abdul Karim Al-Rawi, explained: This workshop dealt with the increasing phenomena of environmental pollution in Iraq. It is the phenomenon of smog, which is a new phenomenon that has a significant impact on human health. She added, “Environmental pollution, climate change and its repercussions have affected all sectors of human development and the health of the population in particular.
The director of the National Center for Population and Demographic Studies at the University of Baghdad, Dr. Nasr Shamil Salman, said: The phenomenon of smog results from chemical reactions – light, its components are unpleasant gases. The smell of it: Peroxy-acetyl nitrate or peroxyacetyl. The risk of these gases increases when temperatures fluctuate and the day is sunny. Pointing out that this phenomenon can be seen in the city of Baghdad, especially in the city center, and specifically in the early morning during the winter days, and it is in the form of a nebulous cloud that envelops the city’s atmosphere. Mr. Salman noted that the smog phenomenon is one of the most dangerous manifestations of condensation, and it is formed when high atmospheric pressure prevails, coupled with a surface temperature inversion, and it frequently occurs in major cities with high traffic densities, as well as in the airspace of some industrial areas in which smoke particles increase in the atmosphere.