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US Rice Imports Contain Harmful Levels of Lead

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Fri, 2013-04-12 00:38 — Kathy Gilbeaux

      

The researchers found the highest levels of lead in rice from China and Taiwan

submitted by Lloyd Helferty

bbc.co.uk - by Jason Palmer - April 10, 2013

Analysis of commercially available rice imported into the US has revealed it contains levels of lead far higher than regulations suggest are safe.

Some samples exceeded the "provisional total tolerable intake" (PTTI) set by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) by a factor of 120.

The report at the American Chemical Society Meeting adds to the already well-known issue of arsenic in rice.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

Journal of Environmental Science and Health (Part B)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-22099990

Country / Region Tags: 
Global
General Topic Tags: 
Agriculture
Food
Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?: 
Problem
Situation Report
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Agriculture and Food Security

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Fri, 2013-04-12 00:44 — Kathy Gilbeaux

submitted by Lloyd Helferty

reuters.com - Reporting by Tan Ee Lyn; Editing by Charles Dick - November 15, 2009

(Reuters) - Man-made ponds and rice fields irrigated using groundwater may be responsible for arsenic contamination of groundwater in Bangladesh, a study has found.

Arsenic is a naturally occurring chemical poisonous to humans and is known to cause skin lesions and cancers of the bladder, kidney, lung and skin.

While it is known that organic carbon triggers the release of arsenic from sediments into groundwater, the source of this carbon has been unclear.

In a paper published in Nature Geoscience, researchers said they used chemical tests and models to examine the flow of groundwater in a typical agricultural area in Bangladesh and found that man-made ponds were a key source of organic carbon.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

Anthropogenic influences on groundwater arsenic concentrations in Bangladesh
http://www.nature.com/ngeo/journal/v3/n1/full/ngeo685.html

Anthropogenic influences on groundwater arsenic concentrations in Bangladesh (7 page .PDF file)
http://censam.mit.edu/publications/nature-geo.pdf

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