Presence of lead in opium.
Opium addiction is a common form of addiction in Middle East countries such as Iran. Recently several reports suggested some kinds of pathologic findings such as abdominal pain, nephropathy, and anemia in opium addict patients. Such pathologic findings suggest lead poisoning in the patients. In this study, the concentration of lead in 10 opium samples was evaluated. The mean concentration of lead in the opium samples was 1.88 ppm. This may explain some of the pathologic findings found in addict patients. The authors would suggest further investigations to evaluate the lead concentration in opium addicts' sera and also routine screening for lead poisoning in opium addict patients.
Aghaee-Afshar
Mahmoud
M
Department of Surgery, Afzalipour School of Medicine, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran.
Khazaeli
Payam
P
Behnam
Behzad
B
Rezazadehkermani
Mohammad
M
Ashraf-Ganjooei
Narges
N