A combine harvests rice near Tucker, Ark., as consumer groups
pressure the FDA to set federal standards on arsenic in rice. A
combine harvests rice near Tucker, Ark., as consumer groups
pressure the FDA to set federal standards on arsenic in rice.
Danny Johnston/AP Scientists have known for a long time that
rice — often babies' first food and the staple of much of the
world's diet — is good at absorbing inorganic arsenic from soil
during the growing process. Two separate analyses, one by
Consumer Reports and one by the Food and Drug Administration,
have raised concerns that we might be getting too much of this
known human carcinogen in our diets. Based on its findings,
Consumer Reports is calling on the FDA to set federal standards
of arsenic in rice. And the agency is weighing its options. One
of the issues is that there are no federal standards for arsenic
in food, although the federal government does impose a 10 parts
per billion (ppb) limit for arsenic in drinking water. Consumer
Reports found varying lev