Al-Ghadir River (length 15 km, width <3m) is considered one of the most polluted rivers in Lebanon and is the primary source of pollution to the Mediterranean Sea. Different sources of pollution have identified that the water and the sediments of this river have significant levels of heavy metals. These metals were infiltrated to groundwater and then used by the population near the river and probably induces health problems to populations. Telomere length is considered a marker for biological aging. Exposure to heavy metals like lead and cadmium may be associated with premature aging. To test the hypothesis that subjects living beside the polluted river experience accelerated telomere shortening, telomere length was measured using a Real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (QPCR)-based method, and plasma levels of various heavy metals in 100 subjects living beside the polluted river and 100 age- and sex- matched control subjects. Median (range) telomere length ratio was significantly lower in subjects living beside the polluted river than in control subjects. The difference remained highly significant when using logistic regression analysis adjusted for age, sex, and tobacco exposure. Both females and males living beside the polluted river had shorter telomere length than same-sex control subjects.
