Starting tomorrow, Rome’s historic center will be off-limits for six hours each Wednesday to vehicles without catalytic converters, city officials said on Monday. The ban, aimed at reducing levels of toxic benzene, is expected to affect about 1 million cars. Starting August 31, 2000, all of Rome will be closed to cars without the pollution-filtering devices. Meanwhile, Tehran is coping with its own severe air pollution problems by calling for children and the elderly to avoid going outside unless absolutely necessary. In the past two days, pollution in the Iranian city has reached three times accepted standards, a problem attributed to increased traffic and very low wind speeds. And in India, the Supreme Court yesterday called for European-style emissions standards to be imposed on scooters, motorcycles, and auto-rickshaws in and around New Delhi to control pollution.
