Researchers evaluate rice as source of fetal arsenic exposure

A STUDY just published by a Dartmouth team of scientists in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) advances our understanding of the sources of human exposure to arsenic and focuses attention on the potential for consuming harmful levels of arsenic through the consumption of rice.Arsenic occurs naturally in the environment and in elevated concentrations it can be harmful to human health. Common in groundwater, the World Health Organisation set guideline limits for Arsenic levels in drinking water (currently 10 micrograms per liter). Concerns about arsenic exposure are now extending beyond water to rice, as underscored in the new PNAS publication.Rice is susceptible to arsenic contamination due to its ability to extract arsenic from the environment into the rice plant.'Arsenic exposure during pregnancy is a public health concern due to potential health risks to the fetus,' says Margaret Karagas, professor of community and family medicine at Dartmouth Medical School and senior author of the paper.Karagas, director of the Children's Environmental Health and Disease Prevention Centre at Dartmouth, and her colleagues have been active in the area of arsenic and human health for over 15 years, including work linking arsenic and bladder cancer and other conditions. She notes that research elsewhere has related arsenic at very high levels to infant mortality, reduced birth weight, hampered immune function and increased mortality from lung cancer later in life.
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