Consumption of Brown Rice: A Potential Pathway for Arsenic Exposure in Rural Bengal

This study assesses the arsenic (As) accumulation in different varieties of rice grain, that people in rural Bengal mostly prefer for daily consumption, to estimate the potential risk of dietary As exposure through rice intake. The rice samples have been classified according to their average length (<i>L</i>) and <i>L</i> to breadth (<i>B</i>) ratio into four categories, such as short-bold (SB), medium-slender (MS), long-slender (LS), and extra-long slender (ELS). The brown colored rice samples fall into the SB, MS, or LS categories; while all Indian Basmati (white colored) are classified as ELS. The study indicates that the average accumulation of As in rice grain increases with a decrease of grain size (ELS: 0.04; LS: 0.10; MS: 0.16; and SB: 0.33 mg kg^–1), however people living in the rural villages mostly prefer brown colored SB type of rice because of its lower cost. For the participants consuming SB type of brown rice, the total daily intake of inorganic As (TDI-iAs) in 29% of the cases exceeds the previous WHO recommended provisional tolerable daily intake value (2.1 μg day^–1 kg^–1 BW), and in more than 90% of cases, the As content in the drinking water equivalent to the inorganic As intake from rice consumption (<i>C</i>_W,eqv) exceeds the WHO drinking water guideline of 10 μg L^–1. This study further demonstrates that participants in age groups 18–30 and 51–65 yrs are the most vulnerable to the potential health threat of dietary As exposure compared to participants of age group 31–50 yrs, because of higher amounts of brown rice consumption patterns and lower BMI

Testing Tubewell Platform Color as a Rapid Screening Tool for Arsenic and Manganese in Drinking Water Wells

A low-cost rapid screening tool for arsenic (As) and manganese (Mn) in groundwater is urgently needed to formulate mitigation policies for sustainable drinking water supply. This study attempts to make statistical comparison between tubewell (TW) platform color and the level of As and Mn concentration in groundwater extracted from the respective TW (<i>n</i> = 423), to validate platform color as a screening tool for As and Mn in groundwater. The result shows that a black colored platform with 73% certainty indicates that well water is safe from As, while with 84% certainty a red colored platform indicates that well water is enriched with As, compared to WHO drinking water guideline of 10 μg/L. With this guideline the efficiency, sensitivity, and specificity of the tool are 79%, 77%, and 81%, respectively. However, the certainty values become 93% and 38%, respectively, for black and red colored platforms at 50 μg/L, the drinking water standards for India and Bangladesh. The respective efficiency, sensitivity, and specificity are 65%, 85%, and 59%. Similarly for Mn, black and red colored platform with 78% and 64% certainty, respectively, indicates that well water is either enriched or free from Mn at the Indian national drinking water standard of 300 μg/L. With this guideline the efficiency, sensitivity, and specificity of the tool are 71%, 67%, and 76%, respectively. Thus, this study demonstrates that TW platform color can be potentially used as an initial screening tool for identifying TWs with elevated dissolved As and Mn, to make further rigorous groundwater testing more intensive and implement mitigation options for safe drinking water supplies

Arsenic ecotoxicology: the interface between geosphere, hydrosphere and biosphere [Editorial]

Although arsenic (As) has been known since ancient times as a powerful toxin, it was not before the end of the 20th century that the occurrence of As originating from natural sources has been reported in groundwater in different parts of the globe. However, the problem did not receive much global attention until the 1980s when the biggest As calamity in the world was first reported in the Bengal delta in Southeast Asia. This was the starting point for an exponentially widespread scientific, policy and public interest regarding environmental contamination by As