What’s unclear, NewScientist notes, is the degree of danger the amounts discovered by the tests could pose to human health.
Unlike the arsenic one consumes by drinking tainted water, not all of the arsenic found in rice will be digested and thus absorbed into the body, Jackson tells NewScientist. Taking in higher than the federal limit for drinking water by consuming rice or rice products might not pose a major problem, as long as it’s not a daily occurrence, the magazine writes, and Jackson notes that most people are not eating the same diet every day. However, he says, diets that depend on rice as a staple could put the consumer at higher risk.
Read the full story, published 9/19/12 in the NewScientist.