Arsenic found in rice

Recently in the news there has been a lot of hoopla about rice containing higher levels than normal of arsenic. When I think about environmental hazards, even hazards in general, I wouldn’t really think of this story as being relevant to that category. But a hazard like this has the potential to be one of the biggest in our future. Over the last several decades we have been using chemicals like pesticides and the like to rid ourselves of the unwanted insects that prey on our crops. The downfall to this, as we are being reminded of with this news report of arsenic being found in rice, is that we could very perceivably kill ourselves with the poison we commercially use. This goes beyond just rice, but in all our foods as well as our water. When it rains, the water collects the various pesticides we use and carries it into the ground water aquifers, or eventually ends up in the ocean. This type of hazard is most likely going to happen in more developed countries that are industrial enough to need commercial amounts of pesticides. But less developed countries than receive foreign aid in the form of food, most commonly rice, are also at risk.

The industrial revolution marks the time in which man started to greatly affect the environment in which we live. Today, it is impossible to get “fresh” water in terms of it having no trace of pollutants in it. The same goes for air we breath and the food we eat, everything is compromised to some degree. With that being said. I’m surprised to see that this is covered as much as it was in the media. Yes, arsenic is deadly to humans (typically in the form of increasing the risk cancer) but so is breathing in ground level ozone. 

Article found at: http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-09-19/business/ct-nw-rice-arsenic-20120919_1_inorganic-arsenic-outer-bran-rice