Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

US rice imports 'contain harmful levels of lead'

bbc.co.uk

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 79 posts

Re: US rice imports 'contain harmful levels of lead'

#41

Post by No1 »

MichaelSalib wrote: post #9
gnosis wrote: post #2

"If you look through the scientific literature, especially on India and China, they irrigate their crops with raw sewage effluent and untreated industrial effluent," he explained." ... "Dr Tongesayi also said that the increasing practice of sending electronic waste to developing countries - and the pollution it leads to - exacerbates the problem." This is seriously scary! I had no idea that the delicious Indian and P…

What happened to the FDA's mission to protect the consumer? Why aren't rice imports tested for heavy metals? You know why. Because that would be onerous government regulation. Americans are obsessed with the idea that the government overregulates everything. That's why Congress is unwilling to fund enforcement actions.

No, it's because their mission above all else is now to reinforce big pharma.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/prescription/h...

Re: US rice imports 'contain harmful levels of lead'

#42

Post by seanmcdirmid »

jcr wrote: post #5
gnosis wrote: post #2

"If you look through the scientific literature, especially on India and China, they irrigate their crops with raw sewage effluent and untreated industrial effluent," he explained." ... "Dr Tongesayi also said that the increasing practice of sending electronic waste to developing countries - and the pollution it leads to - exacerbates the problem." This is seriously scary! I had no idea that the delicious Indian and P…

> What happened to the FDA's mission to protect the consumer? The formal name is "Regulatory Capture" [1] but the common name is simply corruption. The interesting thing the article fails to mention is most of the countries which the US imports rice from actually ban rice imports from the US. The US, specifically California central valley, had and mostly still has a huge rice industry, but since so many countries ban…

Think how it must feel to be Thailand, who is the largest rice exporter in the world? The US comes in at number 4 after China and Vietnam and just before India.

Re: US rice imports 'contain harmful levels of lead'

#43

Post by seanmcdirmid »

jcromartie wrote: post #31

Specifically, Chinese rice contains harmful levels of lead. If there is one lesson we've learned about consumer products in the last decade, it's don't eat anything from China.

Then what am I supposed to eat?

Disclosure: I live in China. At home we eat Jasmine (Thai) rice since it is tastier anyways.

Re: US rice imports 'contain harmful levels of lead'

#44

Post by lignuist »

jcromartie wrote: post #31

Specifically, Chinese rice contains harmful levels of lead. If there is one lesson we've learned about consumer products in the last decade, it's don't eat anything from China.

When it comes to food from china, it always reminds me of exploding watermelons due to excessive use of fertilizer: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-13421374

Re: US rice imports 'contain harmful levels of lead'

#45

Post by beedogs »

gnosis wrote: post #2

"If you look through the scientific literature, especially on India and China, they irrigate their crops with raw sewage effluent and untreated industrial effluent," he explained." ... "Dr Tongesayi also said that the increasing practice of sending electronic waste to developing countries - and the pollution it leads to - exacerbates the problem." This is seriously scary! I had no idea that the delicious Indian and P…

> What happened to the FDA's mission to protect the consumer? Why aren't rice imports tested for heavy metals?

You can thank Republicans, specifically the Bush administration, for neutering the FDA and the USDA.

Apparently profit is more important than whether or not Americans are consuming poison in their food.

Re: US rice imports 'contain harmful levels of lead'

#46

Post by ern »

Although I acknowledge that lead is nasty stuff, something about this issue bothers me.

According to some studies, increasing exposure to lead at low levels (1-10 micrograms/dl) shaves 4-7 points off IQ scores[1].

Yet, as population blood lead levels have plunged in recent years, there haven't been proportionately massive gains in IQ in the population. Indeed, the Flynn effect may have stalled in recent years[2].

This either means that there are confounders or some other effect is in place. But I'm no expert, and I'd value the input of someone better informed.

[1] http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa022848 [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flynn_effect#Possible_end_of_pr...

Re: US rice imports 'contain harmful levels of lead'

#47

Post by DanBC »

gnosis wrote: post #2

"If you look through the scientific literature, especially on India and China, they irrigate their crops with raw sewage effluent and untreated industrial effluent," he explained." ... "Dr Tongesayi also said that the increasing practice of sending electronic waste to developing countries - and the pollution it leads to - exacerbates the problem." This is seriously scary! I had no idea that the delicious Indian and P…

> "Dr Tongesayi also said that the increasing practice of sending electronic waste to developing countries - and the pollution it leads to - exacerbates the problem."

The words "electronic waste" don't really convey the scale of the problem.

I used to imagine piles of computers, with people able to strip out the copper, tin, lead, gold, aluminum, steel, etc for sale. I knew conditions would be a bit rougher than UK factories, but I imagined some kind of shack, and some kind of tools.

Here's a snippet from a UK TV programme about the e-waste dump in Agbogbloshie, Accra, Ghana. It's pretty depressing. There's no kind of sensible plan to recovering useful stuff. Seeing a boy smashing polyester / polystyrene caps off an old PCB with a rock is just grim.

(http://videobam.com/rcEUM)

Here's a link to the original programme (http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00sch78)

Re: US rice imports 'contain harmful levels of lead'

#48

Post by gmac »

jcromartie wrote: post #31

Specifically, Chinese rice contains harmful levels of lead. If there is one lesson we've learned about consumer products in the last decade, it's don't eat anything from China.

I do vaguely try to avoid buying food from China, but some things are hard to find from anywhere else (ginger, for example).

Re: US rice imports 'contain harmful levels of lead'

#49

Post by lignuist »

gmac wrote: post #48
jcromartie wrote: post #31

Specifically, Chinese rice contains harmful levels of lead. If there is one lesson we've learned about consumer products in the last decade, it's don't eat anything from China.

I do vaguely try to avoid buying food from China, but some things are hard to find from anywhere else (ginger, for example).

Put some fresh ginger in some soil and start harvesting your own after a few months.

http://herbgardens.about.com/od/indoorgardening/a/How-Can-I-...

Re: US rice imports 'contain harmful levels of lead'

#50

Post by tome »

rdouble wrote: post #18
nicksergeant wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, even US-grown rice suffers the same problem (not as the article, though). Basically rice in the southern US is grown in fields that used to be used for cotton, and the use of arsenic as a pesticide was allowed back then. Fast forward and they're using the same fields to grow rice, and the metals are still in the soil... I'll try and dig up some sources when I'm not mobile.

I found some sources on my own. Interesting. It looks like California rice is the safest, and white rice is better than brown.

White is better than brown? Isn't white just brown with the brown removed?
Post reply on HN