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DATED 02 AUGUST 2005
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Tuesday 02 August 2005
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US rice carries an arsenic burden
Legacy of cotton pesticides might be poisoning crops.
Rice grown in the United States contains an average of 1.4-5 times more
arsenic than rice from Europe, India and Bangladesh, according to a survey
of grains from around the world.
This means that people eating a 'subsistence' diet of 500 grams of dry
American rice a day could be consuming more than the maximum intake of
arsenic provisionally recommended by the World Health Organization,
[email protected] reports in a news story this week
(http://www.nature.com/news/2005/050801/full/050801-5.html)
While no one knows if this level and type of arsenic is dangerous, and some
experts see no cause for concern, the lead researcher of the study,
published in Environmental Science and Technology, has decided to stop
eating American grains. "When we're all paranoid about what's in our food,
the question to ask is, 'Would you like your rice to be grown on arsenic
contaminated soil?'," says Andrew Meharg, a biogeochemist from the
University of Aberdeen, UK. Previous research in Taiwan has linked long-term
consumption of arsenic-contaminated rice to an increase in bladder cancer.
The researchers think that the contamination is a legacy of cotton farming,
which uses arsenic-based pesticides. Land in Mississippi and Arkensas that
once grew cotton is now used for rice cultivation, says Meharg. He is
calling for change in farming methods. "I don't think they should be growing
rice on old cotton fields," he says.
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