Blood Lead Level in Opium Abuse; Which Is More Dangerous? Opium Smoking or Opium Ingestion?

During the recent years, risk of lead poisoning has increased in Iranian’s opium users. A few researches showed that the most common route was ingestion of lead contaminated opium in these patients. However, data on lead poisoning through inhalation route in opium smokers is scarce. The aim of the current study was to determine lead poisoning in opium smokers. In this case-controlled study, blood lead level (BLL) and clinical lead poisoning were assessed and compared between pure inhalational and pure ingestionally chronic opium users and healthy controls. There were totally 90 cases, 30 patients in each group (pure inhaler opium users, pure oral opium users, and control group). In chronic opium users (case group), mean age of the patients was 48.91±13.14 yeas (range; 22 to 79 years). Eighty-four (85%) patients were male (male to female ratio: 5.6/1). Mean BLL was 10.6±4.2 and 126.1±52µg/dL in opium smokers and ingestional users, respectively (P=0.001). The mean of BLL in healthy control group was 4.78 µg/dL±1.83. In contrast to chronic ingestion of opium, the probability of absorption of lead via lungs is low when opium used by smoking and inhalation route. So, lead toxicity is not common in acute or chronic inhalational users of lead-contaminated opium.