New study focuses on arsenic in rice

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New study focuses on arsenic in rice.

<http://news.consumerreports.org/safety/2011/12/new-study-focuses-on-arsenic-in-\

rice.html>

By Rock Consumer Reports 6 December 2011

A new federally-funded study of more than 200 pregnant women receiving

prenatal care in the New Hampshire area reports a link between rice

consumption and elevated levels of arsenic in urine, suggesting that

many people in the United States may be exposed to potentially harmful

levels of arsenic through rice consumption.

Rice is among the plants that are unusually efficient at taking up

arsenic from the soil and incorporating it in the grains people eat.

Moreover, much of the rice produced in the U.S. is grown in Arkansas,

Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, and Texas on land formerly used to

grow cotton, where arsenical pesticides were used for decades....

The study’s authors state that arsenic exposure during pregnancy is a

particular public health concern. Exposure to this toxin in the womb has

been linked to problems ranging from low birth weight and infant

mortality to hampered immune function and increased death rates from

lung cancer later in life. Arsenic exposure in early childhood also is

especially harmful, and since rice-based infant cereals are often the

first solid food babies eat, high levels of arsenic in rice are

worrisome indeed....

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the study was published in the peer-reviewed journal Proceedings of

the National Academy of Sciences

<http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2011/11/29/1109127108.abstract?sid=a3d937be-0\

126-4ca3-bc60-d20ba0f31fa7>