High Levels of Arsenic Found in Rice Sold Across the U.S. | Hacker News Reader

High Levels of Arsenic Found in Rice Sold Across the U.S.

delish.com

11 pointsLopRabbit12 comments

There was a study done a while back on how to try to remove arsenic from rice. You essentially boil it for 5 minutes and get rid of that water first, then cook rice normally.

https://scitechdaily.com/scientists-find-new-way-of-cooking-...

I'm pretty sure this would remove (i.e., nullify) the majority of its nutrients & value to consumption to begin with. We need to find ways to cleanly grow rice, on lands that aren't already contaminated with arsenic.

You imagine that most people eat nuggets of calories for the nutrients? Which are minimal to begin with...

link to the actual report:

https://hbbf.org/sites/default/files/2025-05/Arsenic-in-Rice...

This rang my "fraud" detector in my head:

1. a random .org site that sounds too much like rah rah save the children

2. spammed across many news sites and reddit and now hacker news all in a short time span

but after reading the report it seems pretty good

The take-away I got was buy rice grown in California, Thailand, or India. Soak beforehand if you really want to reduce bad stuff

Also rice is a lot worse than other grains and brown rice is worse than other rice. Asian people in particular should diversify their diets. I'd note that Asian-Americans already have high PFAS levels because they use rice cookers.

Do you have a source about PFAs from rice cookers? My understanding is that Teflon in cookware, used at recommended temperatures, doesn't release PFAs. It's the Teflon manufacturing process that releases PFAs.

Teflon rice cookers don't really release PFAS at appreciable levels. Teflon is remarkably stable (and one of the reasons it was DuPont's miracle discovery).

PTFE's degradation point is 260C, but rice cookers only cook up to 100C (controlled).

The only source of PTFE is if they scratch or flake off over time, but this is usually visible.

Teflon cookware are more problematic in non-stick pans, where they do get heated to higher temperatures, especially for stir fries.

This doesn't blame rice cookers but it points out a large difference

https://www.mountsinai.org/about/newsroom/2023/mount-sinai-r...

These people think it might be seafood

https://www.biomonitoring.ca.gov/sites/default/files/downloa...

Thanks for reading the report and providing the tl;dr.

Another thing that caught my eye as I scanned the article was "rice products" which is obviously not just rice, and levels exceeded for "infant rice cereal".

So, it did sort of seem aimed at the market of inducing panic in new moms.

This would be tough to solve. As the report points out, arsenic is a naturally occuring compound. Despite what regulations you may want to pass, the solution is ultimately going to fall on the farmers in high arsenic areas to switch crops.

I'd also pump the brakes on freaking out. The long-term risks of arsenic are pretty tenuous at best - nothing at all like lead.

> arsenic is a naturally occuring compound

Small edit: it's an element, not a compound.

Compounds can be denatured to render them harmless, or at least less harmful. Bleach left out in the sun becomes slightly salty water.

Arsenic is eternally harmful.

My neighbor, a chemist, told me this years back. He had sampled US grown rice. He said arsenic was used to color chicken meat and there is runoff that gets into where rice is grown.

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