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
