

US rice imports 'contain harmful levels of lead' - gnosis
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-22099990

======
uvdiv
Here's an abstract from the researcher, Tsanangurayi Tongesayi. Not this exact
presentation, but apparently the same research:

 _Lead was present in all the foods samples and its concentration ranged from
4.3 to 17.9 µg/g. Some baby rice food had levels of Pb as high as 12.5±0.2
µg/g._

[http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:d4lyxhr...](http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:d4lyxhrXhkQJ:abstracts.acs.org/chem/244nm/program/view.php%3Fpub_num%3D280%26par%3DENVR+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us)

(Google Cache because of the intellectual property circus).

The FDA's recommended limit, expressed in total Pb ingested per day (only
figure I could find), is

 _The FDA’s recommended Provisional Total Tolerable Intake Level (PTTIL) for
lead in children less than 6 years of age is 6 μg lead/day. For children 7
years and older, the PTTIL is 15 μg lead/day. It increases to 75 μg lead/day
for adults (USFDA 1993)._

[http://health.mo.gov/living/environment/hazsubstancesites/pd...](http://health.mo.gov/living/environment/hazsubstancesites/pdf/HercExposureInvestigation.pdf)

This limit can be exceeded with a _fraction of a gram_ of rice (for small
children) -- literally a single grain. You could eat a small bullet's weight
of lead in a few hundred kg -- several years of eating.

And here's an FDA survey of the US food supply: 731 food products, about
10,000 samples, and nothing within orders of magnitude of this.

[http://www.fda.gov/downloads/Food/FoodScienceResearch/TotalD...](http://www.fda.gov/downloads/Food/FoodScienceResearch/TotalDietStudy/UCM184301.pdf)

(pp. 69-80). Notably, their rice samples (#50) had undetectable amounts of
lead, at a detection threshold of 0.007 mg/kg (= µg/g).

(I'm beginning to suspect someone confused a mg/mcg/μg somewhere; that seems
like the Occam's razor explanation. Otherwise, this looks really bad).

~~~
tomsaffell
Thanks for pulling those numbers. But something doesn't quite add up.. The
first linked report says:

 _Samples of rice products from the US, South America, Asia, and Europe were
purchased from local supermarkets and analyzed using XRF and GFAAS. Lead was
present in all the foods samples and its concentration ranged from 4.3 to 17.9
µg/g._

So both domestic US rice and imported rice were in the 4.3-17.0 µg/g range,
which if true would contradict the FDA's results, and mean that US rice was
order-of-magnitude as dangerous as imported rice. What are we (or I) missing?

~~~
uvdiv
It doesn't make sense to me either. If the FDA found n.d. levels of lead in
all their samples, you would expect _some_ of the new study's samples to have
low levels as well.

~~~
tomsaffell
Right, the low end of the range should be much lower. Right now, my money is
on a units error.

------
gnosis
_"If you look through the scientific literature, especially on India and
China, they irrigate their crops with raw sewage effluent and untreated
industrial effluent," he explained."_

...

 _"Dr Tongesayi also said that the increasing practice of sending electronic
waste to developing countries - and the pollution it leads to - exacerbates
the problem."_

This is seriously scary!

I had no idea that the delicious Indian and Pakistani basmati rice that I buy
from my local asian grocery store might have been grown in sewage!

They certainly don't advertise this at the grocery store. And this article
mentions that high levels of arsenic in rice was a "well-known" problem,
linking of FDA's advice on the matter:[1]

I had no idea about this either. Why isn't there more publicity about this?

What happened to the FDA's mission to protect the consumer? Why aren't rice
imports tested for heavy metals?

If not an outright ban on products that fail to meet basic safety standards,
at the very least the FDA could require clear labeling of these products, so
the consumer at least has half a chance of avoiding them if they are
concerned. And who wouldn't be concerened about accidentally poisoning
themselves on sewage-grown rice?

[1] -
[http://www.fda.gov/forconsumers/consumerupdates/ucm319827.ht...](http://www.fda.gov/forconsumers/consumerupdates/ucm319827.htm)

~~~
MichaelSalib
_What happened to the FDA's mission to protect the consumer? Why aren't rice
imports tested for heavy metals?_

You know why. Because that would be onerous government regulation. Americans
are obsessed with the idea that the government overregulates everything.
That's why Congress is unwilling to fund enforcement actions.

~~~
InclinedPlane
The government does overregulate damned near everything. Even worse, it fails
to regulate the right things. You can't buy Kinder Eggs in the US because of
FDA regulations, and yet the FDA lets in literally tons of rice that is
tainted with lead or arsenic.

Does that seem like a problem to you? It seems like a problem to me.

~~~
astrodust
Number of kids that've died from lead poisoned rice: Zero.

Number of kids that've died from eating a Kinder Surprise, Darwin's Law
notwithstanding: At least one?

If you want to complain about regulation, you're really complaining about
people who don't want to take personal responsibility for their own actions.
Rather than not buy Kinder Surprise treats for infants, they'd rather ban them
for everyone _just in case_.

Regulations, in many cases, just reflect collective attitudes.

~~~
InclinedPlane
I'm not sure what sort of point you're trying to make. The major risk of lead
poisoning isn't death it's the many other serious negative health effects,
especially on children's development. Is there a particular reason why we
should ignore lead exposure in children at levels several times higher than
the current EPA limits?

Moreover, if a simplistic analysis of deaths caused by "exposure" are to be
used to guide policy then we should ban water first of all, along with
buckets, gravity, and food.

~~~
nmz787
I suffered through childhood lead poisoning and I'm still here on HN!

------
aaronbrethorst
Good thing the FDA is funded to appropriate levels to ensure that the rest of
our food is safe! Oh wait...

[http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-204_162-57572066/sequester-
may-l...](http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-204_162-57572066/sequester-may-lead-to-
less-safe-food-fda-commissioner-says/)

The really frightening thing to me is that even before the sequester, the FDA
has largely left it up to industry-approved 3rd party food inspectors to
validate food safety.

[http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-10-11/food-sickens-
millio...](http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-10-11/food-sickens-millions-as-
industry-paid-inspectors-find-it-safe.html)

------
nicksergeant
We heard about this a year ago and cut almost 95% of the rice in our diet. Now
we have a rice dish about once a month or less. There were even warnings that
small children should avoid rice completely.

Unfortunately you just need to be proactive about what you put in your mouth,
and don't assume that since you live in a "developed" country that everything
sold is safe to eat.

Don't even get me started on the FDA's stance of "all chemicals used in
consumer goods are considered safe until proven otherwise" stuff.

~~~
rdouble
Couldn't you just buy rice grown in the USA?

~~~
nicksergeant
No, even US-grown rice suffers the same problem (not as the article, though).
Basically rice in the southern US is grown in fields that used to be used for
cotton, and the use of arsenic as a pesticide was allowed back then.

Fast forward and they're using the same fields to grow rice, and the metals
are still in the soil...

I'll try and dig up some sources when I'm not mobile.

~~~
rdouble
I found some sources on my own. Interesting. It looks like California rice is
the safest, and white rice is better than brown.

~~~
tome
White is better than brown? Isn't white just brown with the brown removed?

~~~
stonemetal
Depends on what you mean by _with the brown removed_ It isn't bleached white.
It is like they sold white and brown potatoes at the store, where a white
potato was a pealed brown potato. Just as with potatoes, apples and others,
the nutrients as well as the harmful stuff tends to collect in the skin.

------
dhaivatpandya
I don't think this a new problem, its just one that has been hidden
exceptionally well in "recent" times.

The obvious example is _The Jungle_ by Sinclair which was essentially
publicity of precisely these problems, except in the beginnings of the 20th
century. I highly doubt that the situation has been drastically improved, but,
really hidden much more thoroughly from the public view.

------
jcromartie
Specifically, Chinese rice contains harmful levels of lead. If there is one
lesson we've learned about consumer products in the last decade, it's _don't
eat anything from China._

~~~
gmac
I do vaguely try to avoid buying food from China, but some things are hard to
find from anywhere else (ginger, for example).

~~~
lignuist
Put some fresh ginger in some soil and start harvesting your own after a few
months.

[http://herbgardens.about.com/od/indoorgardening/a/How-
Can-I-...](http://herbgardens.about.com/od/indoorgardening/a/How-Can-I-Grow-
My-Own-Ginger-Root-Indoors.htm)

------
ern
Although I acknowledge that lead is nasty stuff, something about this issue
bothers me.

According to some studies, increasing exposure to lead at low levels (1-10
micrograms/dl) shaves 4-7 points off IQ scores[1].

Yet, as population blood lead levels have plunged in recent years, there
haven't been proportionately massive gains in IQ in the population. Indeed,
the Flynn effect may have stalled in recent years[2].

This either means that there are confounders or some other effect is in place.
But I'm no expert, and I'd value the input of someone better informed.

[1] <http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa022848> [2]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flynn_effect#Possible_end_of_pr...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flynn_effect#Possible_end_of_progression)

~~~
maxerickson
If the lead exposure is a threshold effect, most of the population might have
already banked the benefits of going below it.

If it mostly impacts development (rather than ongoing performance), even more
so.

~~~
ern
_If the lead exposure is a threshold effect, most of the population might have
already banked the benefits of going below it._

Experts claim there is "no threshold"[1].

[1]<http://www.chem.unep.ch/pops/pdf/lead/leadexp.pdf>

------
jjuliano
Any data about rice in the Philippines?

My family owns a farm in central Luzon, and I know that the majority of
farmers there doesn't use irrigation from streams but instead uses a kerosine-
powered pump deep-well system.

I know this might sound anecdotal, but for more than 20 or so years I've been
visiting our farms every summer, even farmers near the River streams uses
deep-wells and rain water, and the irrigation that runs along the farms are
from deep-wells.

Also, here's a recent article about the Philippine rice are certified arsenic-
free '[http://ph.news.yahoo.com/philippine-rice-certified-
arsenic-f...](http://ph.news.yahoo.com/philippine-rice-certified-arsenic-
free-122344970.html)

~~~
GFischer
I was under the impression that rice in Uruguay is similarly lead-free, using
water from the "Guaraní" aquifer.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guarani_Aquifer>

I worry about the mushroom imports (I buy Chinese champignons and other
stuff), maybe I should stop buying those.

------
ck2
I've been trying to find drinking straws not made in China.

Makes me wonder what's in them with mouth contact.

But this endeavor seems to have no solution, cannot find any.

------
harlox
Is anything safe to eat anymore?

~~~
gph
Sure, Lab-Grown Petri Dish Meat© is perfectly safe.

*Name still pending, all rights reserved, GloboCorp Inc.

~~~
crag
You mean "Spam"? Already trademarked.

~~~
PakG1
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_vitro_meat>

~~~
crag
Ok, that's disgusting.

------
ra
So is there a source of rice that is reliably free from Arsenic contamination?

~~~
ars
Rice from India had the least arsenic, but apparently now they have lead!

I'm not sure there is anyplace that is safe.

------
PunkRockDoc
Has anyone been able to find the actual journal article? I would like to read
it and come to my own conclusions. I find it suspicious that I cant find it,
but maybe I am just not looking hard enough.

