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Presence of Lead in Opium
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Abstract
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