Dive Summary:
- A new study by the American Chemical Society has discovered dangerously high levels of lead in rice imported into the U.S.
- After testing rice from Bhutan, Italy, China, Taiwan, India, Israel, the Czech Republic and Thailand, which all together account for 65% of rice imported into the U.S., the study found rice from China and Taiwan contained the highest lead levels.
- According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), lead levels 10 times more than the "provisional total tolerable intake" (PTTI) are harmful to human health; the study estimated that lead levels for non-Asian adults were 20-40 times more than the PTTI while levels for Asian children reached 120 times more than the PTTI.
- According to the study's lead researcher Dr. Tsanangurayi Tongesayi of Monmouth University, the Chinese "irrigate their crops with raw sewage effluent and untreated industrial effluent"; other studies have shown that rice contains "worrisome" levels of arsenic and 10% of Chinese rice contains cadmium, a highly toxic heavy metal.
From the article:
"... 'With a globalized food market, we eat food from every corner of the world, but pollution conditions are… different from region to region, but we ignore that,' Tongesayi said.
The study will be published in the Journal of Environmental Science and Health. The FDA told the BBC that it 'plans to review the new research on lead levels in imported rice released today.' ..."
