No Immediate Risk Is Found From Arsenic Levels in Rice

[BlueToTheBone]

This story has been out a couple days and the headlines are changing. This was the first one

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/07/health/arsenic-levels-in-rice-products-not-a-health-risk-fda-says.html

WASHINGTON — The Food and Drug Administration announced Friday that it had found no evidence that current levels of arsenic in rice pose an immediate health risk.

The finding comes two months after the agency proposed new limits on arsenic in apple juice. A public outcry had caused the agency to look at the issue more closely.

The agency tested more than 1,300 types of rice and rice products, like rice cakes and infant cereals, and found that arsenic levels ranged from 3 to 7 micrograms per serving, amounts that the agency said were not hazardous to human health in the short term.

Most rice contains much higher levels of arsenic than apple juice does, said Keeve Nachman, a scientist who studies arsenic in food at the Center for a Livable Future at Johns Hopkins University, but because there is such a wide variety of products made with it, and because it is present at such different levels, the analysis for rice is more complicated.

Here's today's story. It's much more soothing.

FDA tests find very low levels of arsenic in rice
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/09/06/arsenic-rice-low-levels-fda/2771903/
In tests for arsenic in more than 1,300 samples of rice and rice products, the Food and Drug Administration has found levels vary but overall are far too low to cause any immediate or short-term adverse health effects.

The results, out Friday, represent the first time FDA has released broad numbers on arsenic's presence in rice products. The findings show the highest average levels in brown rice, the lowest in rice wine. The brown rice had 160 parts per billion inorganic arsenic per serving, infant rice cereal 120 and rice wine 11.

Arsenic comes in two chemical forms, organic and inorganic. Inorganic arsenic is more common. It occurs in rocks and is a known human carcinogen. Organic arsenic is considered harmless.

In southern Arkansas, the farmers used to grow cotton and saturated the ground with arsenic to kill the bugs that ate the cotton. Now, they've turned to rice farming. But, don't worry, there won't be immediate or short term adverse health affects.

[elleng]

1. WTF is an 'immediate health risk?'

[BlueToTheBone]

2. Oh, you noticed.

I think that's why they changed the wording, it sounds less deadly in the USA edition.

But seriously, never buy rice grown in the south. It seems that rice from the Sacto Valley is safer. India's rice is probably all GMO.

Can you imagine growing a crop with deadly pesticides for generations and then turning the land into food use, without remediation?

[dragonlady]

3. A safer way to cook rice

We like brown rice, but were worried about the risks from arsenic. Some of this apparently can be removed by changing from the method that cooks the rice until all the water is absorbed. We now rinse the rice, cook in a large amount of water for 40 minutes, and drain in a colander. It actually has a better texture this way too.