Researchers detect high level cancer substance in foreign rice!

New research says it is no longer safe to eat imported rice and rice products daily due to the high level of arsenic, a cancer-causing trace element, found in them. At high levels, arsenic, over time, can cause cancer.

According to a recent investigation by the world’s largest independent product testing/ consumer-advocacy organization in America, Consumer Reports, more than half of the most popular rice products in Britain including Kellogg’s Rice Krispies and Smooth Baby Rice by Heinz, Uncle Ben’s, Goya, Earth’s Best Organic and Gerber- all had high level of arsenic.

The organization recently tested 200 samples of different rice products – from organic rice, baby cereal and brown rice to rice crispies – and found alarmingly high levels of arsenic present. Organic original puffed rice cereal by Kallo Foods was found to have 323 parts of arsenic per billion (ppb) while Organic wholegrain baby rice by Organix was found to have 268 ppb – 168 per cent above recommended levels for babies and children.

Also, Rice Krispies by Kelloggs were found to have 188 ppb, far above the recommended levels for babies and children. This has raised concern as inorganic arsenic is known to cause lung, skin and bladder cancers, as well as a host of other lifelong health problems. A similar test by The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) also found the arsenic levels in 200 rice products they recently tested, yielded similar results. But the agency said it will not make any recommendations about altering the consumption of rice or rice products until it has tested an additional 1,000 rice samples, which will reportedly be completed by year end.

However, high level of arsenic has not been found in Nigeria local rice, Dr. Olukayode Oyeleye, the special adviser to the outgoing Honourable Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, told National Mirror.

“It is common where rice is grown in flooded fields, in conditions entailing the cultivation of swamp rice. It is this flooding that releases inorganic arsenic, normally locked up in soil minerals, which makes it available for the plants to uptake.

“We are not under as much risk from rice produced in Nigeria, which is mostly the upland type of rice. We have also not subjected our land to as much of intensive rice production as found in Asian countries of India, Vietnam, Thailand and even China where this arsenic problem is pronounced. This arises from years of repeated cultivation of the same piece of land under flooding condition”, he said.

To save Nigerians from the risk of cancer, Dr. Oyeleye called for import regulation of food products, “since a bulk of what we consume (rice and fish) are imported. Imported rice poses more of arsenic risk than that which is produced locally. Nigerian rice is therefore safer and more nutritious”, he added.

However, Dr. Oyeleye, explained that high level of arsenics are not found in rice alone. According to him, other food items (particularly the sea foods) are known to contain high levels of arsenic.

“Arsenic poisoning is a global problem arising from naturally occurring arsenic in ground water. The dominant basis of arsenic poisoning is from ground water that naturally contains high concentrations of arsenic. A 2007 study found that over 137 million people in more than 70 countries are probably affected by arsenic poisoning from drinking water”, He further said.

While the health effects of arsenic in food are still unknown, researchers say at high levels, arsenic, over time, can cause cancer. “This is a known carcinogen linked to several types of cancer, including lung cancer, skin cancer and bladder cancer,” said Keeve Nachman, food safety scientist at Johns Hopkins University.

The scientists are particularly worried about children who consume these foreign rice products. “We think children should consume even less of rice products because they are more vulnerable to the toxic effects of arsenic,” said Urshavi Rangan, one of the scientists who ran the study for Consumer Reports.

On precautionary measures, Consumer Reports recommends cutting back on rice and eating it in moderation while some experts suggests washing the rice to get rid of some of the arsenic, soaking and rinsing it in a bowl of water until the water is clear.


culled from: National Mirror