**eat less rice
**vary rice products with other grains
**eat a varied diet and don't fret
**rinse before cooking
**cook differently: boil in excess water and then strain (removes 30% of inorganic)
**limit cereals to one serving/day esp for babies
**avoid baby formula containing domestic rice
HOW ARSENIC GETS IN FOOD
CONSUMER REPORTS
blows the ceiling off
225 samples of rice/products turned up arsenic in every case, organic and inorganic
USES OF ARSENIC
to strengthen copper and lead
in pesticides, herbicides
as a lumber preservative
in FEED
for poultry, industrial food production
Spurs growth and fends off disease in chickens and turkeys
Histostat/nitarsone: Second arsenic-containing poultry drug
still legally marketed in the U.S. by Pfizer
only product approved by the FDA for prevention of blackhead
blackhead = potentially deadly condition in turkeys and chicken
Cargill says that the company's feed formulations are proprietary information
FDA says nothing really
Naturally-occurring arsenic in soil/water
Pesticides
Most banned in 1980's but residues are in soil
Historic use as Pesticide on cotton in southern fields (late 19th early 20th)
MSMA is a pesticide still legally applied to crops in 2012
Increasing resistance of pigweed to Roundup has forced some farmers to revert to arsenic
Remaining approved uses of MSMA: on cotton fields, golf courses
European Union banned roxarsone more than a decade ago
Worst arsenic-containing pesticides banned 30 years ago because they also contained lead
Residues from the decades of use of lead-arsenate insecticides linger in agricultural soil today, even though their use was banned in the 1980s
Fertilizer
Use of dried, pelletized poultry manure as fertilizer keeps arsenic in our foods
used for rice crops
DIETARY CULPRITS
RICE
Brown rice has more than white rice because the bran is still on there
Most rice in US is grown in the south
79% from Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri and Texas
states share a history of growing cotton (use of arsenate pesticides)
organic rice, grown without pesticides, had same levels of arsenic
(organic doesn't help)
rice grown in California, Thailand and India, had lower arsenic levels
People eating rice had higher levels of arsenic in their urine
n = 3,633
One rice food item: total urinary arsenic levels 44% greater than those who had not
Two or more rice products/day-->levels 70% higher than those who had no rice
Rice provides a sig portion of total inorganic arsenic to US diets, perhaps 50%
Fruit juices
Imported meats
Drugmaker Pfizer suspended US sales (2011) of the most popular arsenic-based drug: 3-nitro/roxarsone, still being exported to countries that might export meat back to US
EU never granted approval of organic arsenical herbicides such as MSMA
HARMFUL?
known carcinogen
suspected hormone disruptor
previous assessment by the EPA based on cancer risk only
EPA drinking water standard: 10ppb: may not be strict enough
causes immune deficiency in zebrafish
other outcomes:
type 2 diabetes, heart disease and reproductive disorders
same problems tied to hormone disruptors
EPA sez chronic exposure-->sores and skin lesions, incr lung, skin and bladder ca
FDA FAQs
did not recommend any changes in rice consumption
will do further testing
SOURCES
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/22/arsenics-industrial-agriculture-pesticides-poultry_n_2001340.html?utm_hp_ref=mostpopular
http://www.dailygazette.com/weblogs/hartley/2012/oct/22/wash-your-rice/
http://health.usnews.com/health-news/blogs/eat-run/2012/09/28/arsenic-in-rice-of-baby-and-bath-water