Page 23 - Untitled

25 18

10.30491/JCM.2024.411183.1016 Journal of Combat Medicine
Narrative Review 2023 | 6 (1) | 18-25

Health and Environmental Risks Associated with Exposure
to Heavy Metals Emitted by Military Operations

Hamze Sharifi 1*, Mohammad Mosaferi 1
1- Department of Environmental Health Engineering, School of Health, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran

Received: 23 December 2022 Accepted: 15 February 2023

Abstract

Background and Aim: During military operations, residual metals and weapons residue, including lead, copper,
depleted uranium (DU), zinc, nickel, chromium, cadmium, etc., are released into the environment. These activities
can result in human exposure to metal by inhalation or ingestion of released particles, as well as injury from
embedded fragments. This study was conducted to investigate potential sources of metal emissions during military
operations, pathways of metal exposure, and associated health risks.
Methods: This study is a review study conducted in the spring of 2023 by searching the PubMed, Web of Science,
and Scopus databases and searching using the Google Scholar search engine using the keywords “Health effects”,
“health”, “Metal”, “Embedded Pieces”, “Weapon” “Military” and related articles were selected and reviewed.
Results: Residues of war weapons can directly cause exposure and contamination of plants, animals, and humans
with metals through soil, air, underground, and surface water. Biomonitoring studies have shown an increase
in the accumulation of these metals in plants, vertebrates and invertebrates. Exposure to these metals leads to
adverse cardiovascular, neurological, etc. consequences in military personnel and negative consequences for the
development of the nervous system in children living in military areas. Also, experimental studies in vivo and in
vitro have shown the toxic effects of specific metals as well as widely used metal alloys.
Conclusion: Evidence shows that exposure to metals during military activities can be associated with metal toxicity
and contribute significantly to adverse health effects. An increased metal load in the body may lead to latent and
long-term effects in exposed people. The major effects of toxicity depend on various factors such as the type of
weapon, chemical composition, routes of exposure, and environmental characteristics, which are currently poorly
understood. Therefore, further studies in biological, epidemiological, and laboratory surveillance are needed to
better characterize metal exposure associated with military operations.

Keywords: Environment Pollution, Military Activity, Metals, Health Effects.

* Corresponding Author: Hamze Sharifi
Address: Department of Environmental Health Engineering,
School of Health, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz,
Iran.
E-mail: [email protected]

Copyright© 2021. This open-access article is published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-
NonCommercial 4.0 International License which permits Share (copy and redistribute the material in any medium or
format) and Adapt (remix, transform, and build upon the material) under the Attribution-NonCommercial terms.
Downloaded from: http:// www.jmedbehrazm.ir