Residual Concentrations of Arsenic and its health effects in the Iranian population: A Systematic Review

Arsenic causes a variety of health effects. Arsenic is increasingly incorporated in industries and this has led to environmental contamination of arsenic. Despite this fact، there is no thorough information about human exposure to arsenic in Iran. This systematic review tries to provide a comprehensive picture of arsenic concentrations in the human body and its side effects in the Iranian population. Relevant studies were obtained through searching PubMed، Scopus، Science Direct، Cochrane، Google Scholar، SID، Magiran and IranMedex. Primary studies that had assessed arsenic concentration in biological samples or had investigated its health effects were included after quality assessment and information regarding the population under investigation، place of study، specimen type، arsenic dose، source of exposure and health effects were recorded. Eighteen studies were included. Arsenic levels were higher than standard in street children، inhabitants of some villages of Isfahan، Khorasan and Kurdistan provinces and fishermen of Persian Gulf ports. Chronic arsenic poisoning was the major type of poisoning and keratosis، hyper-pigmentation، Mee’s lines and chromosomal abnormalities was the main symptoms in this regard. Major sources of arsenic contamination were chronic exposure to contaminated water، soil، food stuff and air. Body concentration of arsenic is higher than standard in some regions of Iran. This is indicative of environmental contamination. Promotion of environmental health standards، monitoring arsenic levels in high risk populations and conducting timely public health interventions is recommended to overcome this public health problem.