For six years, Ziska and a large team of research colleagues from China and the US grew rice in controlled fields and were exposed to various levels of carbon dioxide and temperature. They found that when both increase along the projections by climate scientists, the amount of arsenic and inorganic arsenic in rice grains also increases.
Arsenic is naturally found in some foods, including fish, shellfish, water and soil.
Inorganic arsenic is found in industrial materials and enters water containing water used to soak it.
Rice is easily flooded with weeds and other crops, but it has one advantage. It grows well underwater. Therefore, farmers germinate the seeds and plant them in moist soil when the seedlings are ready. It then floods into weed-controlled fields, allowing rice to flourish. Rice easily absorbs arsenic-containing water and everything in it, whether it occurs naturally or not. This is how most of the rice in the world is grown.
New research shows that climate change increases these levels.
“In the case of temperature and CO, what happens in rice due to complex biogeochemical processes in soils.2 Going up, so does inorganic arsenic,” Ziska said.
Exposure to inorganic arsenic is associated with cancer of skin, bladder, lung, heart disease and neurological problems in infants. Research has shown that inorganic arsenic increases the risk of cancer in some parts of the world where rice is consumed in large quantities.
