Comment by jandrewrogers | Hacker News Reader

Comment by jandrewrogers | Hacker News Reader

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It mostly isn't a concern domestically. Americans don't eat nearly as much rice as Haitians, apparently.

What constitutes a dangerous level of arsenic in the diet is controversial. First, arsenic is an essential micronutrient similar to selenium, and with a similar toxicity profile. There isn't much science to support the notion that the trace levels commonly found in food and water represent a health risk. Second, the recommended arsenic thresholds set by the government were the product of efforts by environmentalists to make opening new mines impractical by setting the standard below background environmental levels for many types of mining. This was sold under the theory that "arsenic is toxic at any dose" but per the first point, it clearly isn't.

tl;dr: There was a lot of motivated reasoning and not much science behind the food and water arsenic recommended safe levels, and several regions of the planet are subject to significantly higher background levels with no ill effects. You definitely don't want to go out of your way to consume arsenic -- it is toxic at some dose -- but much of the discussion around the level of risk is misleading.

As far as I understand there is no actual evidence that arsenic is an essential trace element for humans. There is some data in animals, but not in humans.

What a gross generalization of what Americans eat. My family eats rice with almost every meal.

Given that, is this a concern domestically? Is it a concern for my toddler?

Of course it is a gross generalization, talking about the diet of any country usually is.

While everyone is focused on rice, the other major bio-accumulator is brassica vegetables such as cabbage, broccoli, and cauliflower. Many parts of Asia consume large quantities of both plants daily as staples, which suggests that the risk is low in practice.

Your Asia observation is relevant only if Asian levels of arsenic in the soil is comprable US levels, but I always thought levels in the soil in the southern US are an order of magnitude or 2 higher.

> My family eats rice with almost every meal.

I wouldn't say that's typical of most American households though. Ever heard of the Standard American Diet?

America is extremely diverse. There is no “standard diet”.

There empirically is a standard American diet. Of course diversity also exists but it’s insignificant statistically. When this changes you’ll see different food at rest stops on interstate highways. It’ll happen but not very fast.

I think the whole point is that an American who eats a lot of rice is not served by the answer “it’s not a problem, Americans don’t eat a lot of rice”.

I think the people are trying to figure out if arsenic levels in rice will be a problem for them specifically, not our population as a whole. When they say “is that a problem here?” they mean “is the rice I am buying here of concern if I eat a lot of it?”

It’s like the US is literally one of the most diverse countries out there.

Nearly every meal I have has rice.

Don’t buy rice from Texas or Mississippi. The Consumer Reports analysis other people are linking showed the former big cotton states had contaminated many of their rice fields with arsenic from cotton growing.

Naturally occurring arsenic in groundwater is the major source. Lots of parts of the US have pretty high concentrations.

https://publicintegrity.org/environment/arsenic-levels-in-gr...

Arkansas is the big worry here, although Louisiana has some specialty brands (Jazzmen)

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