page_title: Environmental issues in Egypt
section_title: Air Pollution
hierarchical_section_title: Environmental issues in Egypt / Pollution / Air Pollution
caption_attribution_description: Blick vom Cairo Tower auf das Zentrum von Kairo Fotografiert am 6. Oktober 2003 Fotograf: Martin Steiger Uploader: Martin Steiger
context_page_description: Egypt's environmental problems include, but are not limited to, water scarcity, air pollution, damage to historic monuments, animal welfare issues and deficiencies in its waste management system.
context_section_description: The air pollution in Cairo is a matter of serious concern. The air pollution in downtown Cairo is more than 10 to 100 times of acceptable world standards. Cairo has a very poor factor because of lack of rain and its layout of tall buildings and narrow streets, which create a bowl effect (bad ventilation and consequent trapping of pollutants). The main air pollution problem in Egypt is the particulate matter. The most notable sources of the dust and small particles are transportation, industry and open-air waste-burning. Another significant source is not the wind blown from arid areas around Egypt (e.g. Western Desert).
  The air in Egypt is very thick, grey and there is a haze over Cairo. Furthermore, other forms of air pollution in a carbon monoxide (CO) in streets, due to the excess amount of cars' exhaust and factories pollutants. The sky is grey rather than blue, which is very similar to the grey skies in Mexico City, London, and Beijing pollutants, of course, create a lot of respiratory diseases as the United States Environmental Protection Agency has published risk data which state that above the safe limit, the risk of developing serious respiratory diseases and cancer as well as cardiovascular disease from inhaling particulates in the air (dust & soot,  hydrocarbons, and heavy metal compounds) is: 2 people for every 1000.
caption: Air pollution in Cairo.
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