A Consumer Report Study has Found Arsenic in Rice. Will You Lessen Your Intake of Rice?

You mean after millions of years of eating rice the chinese people and asian people of the world are infected with arsenic?????
Lol, Lol, Lol.
Here we go again, yet another health scare of something people have been eating for thousands of years and no related deaths proven, but the "What If" myth has raised it's ugly head once again as technology finds yet another way to test foods for dangers that arn't worth worrying about.

First of all, it is important for you to know that arsenic is a naturally occurring element that has been unavoidably present everywhere in the environment for thousands of years – it's in air, water, rocks and soil, which is how all plant foods, including rice, take it up, regardless of whether the farming method is conventional or organic. All plant foods contain some level of arsenic.
If you eon't want arsenic in your body than don't go outside, don't touch anything, and don't breath the air, Lol, then you'll be safe from arsenic, Lol.

Rice is a primary food source for billions of people around the globe and it is and always has been a wholesome, nutritious food. There is overwhelming food safety, nutrition, scientific and medical evidence that supports that diets rich in fruits, vegetables and grains, like rice, are beneficial to the health of consumers.

In light of concerns about arsenic in rice, federal regulators, including the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) believe that U.S. grown rice is already safe from Arsenic.

So if your worried that much, just buy rice grown in the United States, as our regulations on growing are the highest in the world.

Arsenic, the classic poison slipped into the food and drink of emperors, politicians, popes and unsuspecting heiresses down the ages, is shaking off its disreputable history. It’s mere mention still sends a shiver down many spines — despite earlier successes in treating major diseases such as syphilis and tuberculosis.

But many scientists and doctors are now coming to recognise arsenic’s positive qualities. Recent research suggests that small amounts of arsenic may actually benefit human health and the infamous substance is already used as a treatment for certain types of blood cancer.

A brittle steel-grey element, arsenic is not very poisonous in its natural state. But the adverse properties of its compounds, or arsenicals, have been known for more than 2,000 years and made it a virtual synonym for poisoning and sudden death.

One of these compounds, white-coloured arsenic oxide, is extremely toxic and was for many centuries the murderer’s poison of choice as it was notoriously difficult to detect in corpses. Scientists only developed a reliable test in the 19th century.

Along with cyanide and strychnine, white arsenic won such a terrible reputation that in France it was dubbed ‘‘inheritance powder’’ because so many people used the tasteless and odourless substance to murder rich relatives so they would inherit sooner.

Arsenic can kill quickly if consumed in large quantities, although small long-term exposure can lead to a much slower death. In earlier centuries, symptoms of arsenic poisoning have been easily confused with those of many other illnesses.

Despite its reputation as a first-rate poison, it does have a better side and scientists have recently discovered several beneficial uses.Arsenic’s role in the treatment of disease is long and varied. Doctors have used arsenicals at various stages in history to treat sleeping sickness, tuberculosis and skin diseases, among other illnesses.

While arsenic’s use in contemporary medicine has been severely curtailed, it still plays a role in treating severe parasitic diseases. Outside medicine, it is a key component of semi-conductor devices, mainly in the form of gallium arsenide.

In the last few years, arsenic has won praise from the medical community after its trioxide, used for centuries by traditional Chinese herbalists to fight disease, was shown to have beneficial effects on certain cancers— particularly acute promyelocytic leukaemia (APL). People suffering from this blood disorder have a mutatedgene that creates a malformed protein in their bodies and interferes with the normal growth and death of certain white blood cells.

(Reuters)

Actually without information I cannot make an informed decision. How unfortunate this poll doesn't provide an adequate response.

When I have concerns about food safety, I go to the web site for The Center for Food Safety. I checked and found nothing on this topic at this time so will continue to research.

HOWEVER, if you want a reliable site for excellent information on important agricultural topics, this is it.

http://www.centerforfoodsafet...



Here is one example of the type of information provided:

The Number One threat to Seed Biodiversity: Corporate Takeover of Commercial Seeds by Major Chemical/Biotechnology companies

The top 10 seed companies control 57% of the global seed market. Seed industry concentration has resulted from major pesticide manufacturers like Monsanto, DuPont, Bayer and Dow buying up half the world’s seed supply. This corporate takeover and consolidation of our seed supply has several negative impacts: 1) Use of genetic engineering to make pesticide-promoting GM crops, harming the environment; 2) Reduction/elimination of conventional seeds, giving farmers little choice but to buy GM seeds; 3) Astronomical prices for GM seeds and the pesticides used with them hurt farmers financially; 4) Monsanto’s patents on seeds permit prosecution of farmers for seed-saving; and 5) Monsanto “strong-arm” tactics with ever fewer remaining independent seed companies further reduce farmers’ seed choices and enforce the company’s stranglehold on seeds.

These corporations use several different methods of control over our seed supply. These methods include patenting; genetic engineering; technology use agreements; and terminator technology designed to make plants sterile so they are unable to reproduce, and so that farmers are unable to save the seed from these crops for future planting.

Halting the Corporate Takeover of Seeds

The Center for Food Safety has been taking actions toward halting this corporate takeover of our seed supply. These actions include, but are not limited to the following: 1) Using anti-trust actions to halt monopolistic takeover of seeds (see Corporate Control and Seed Monopolies); 2) Limiting use of gene banks in favor of in situ seed protection and local seed saving (see Genetic Engineering and Patents); and 3) Re-configuring gene bank agreements to protect against corporate exploitation of collections (see Seed Saving and Seed Banks).

Working in collaboration with other NGOs across the world, CFS is taking action to: pass national and international legislation declaring seeds to be non-patentable subject matter; ensure seed saving is a fundamental right of all farmers; promote local seed saving effort around the world; promote a vibrant public sector/government seed research program; declare a moratorium on any new genetically engineered crops; litigate to nullify Technology Use Contracts and coercive seed selling contracts as violations of public policy; and declare an International Ban on Terminator Technology.