"If you look through the scientific literature, especially on India and China, they irrigate their crops with raw sewage effluent and untreated industrial effluent," he explained."...
"Dr Tongesayi also said that the increasing practice of sending electronic waste to developing countries - and the pollution it leads to - exacerbates the problem."
This is seriously scary!
I had no idea that the delicious Indian and Pakistani basmati rice that I buy from my local asian grocery store might have been grown in sewage!
They certainly don't advertise this at the grocery store. And this article mentions that high levels of arsenic in rice was a "well-known" problem, linking of FDA's advice on the matter:[1]
I had no idea about this either. Why isn't there more publicity about this?
What happened to the FDA's mission to protect the consumer? Why aren't rice imports tested for heavy metals?
If not an outright ban on products that fail to meet basic safety standards, at the very least the FDA could require clear labeling of these products, so the consumer at least has half a chance of avoiding them if they are concerned. And who wouldn't be concerened about accidentally poisoning themselves on sewage-grown rice?
[1] - http://www.fda.gov/forconsumers/consumerupdates/ucm319827.ht...
...
"Dr Tongesayi also said that the increasing practice of sending electronic waste to developing countries - and the pollution it leads to - exacerbates the problem."
This is seriously scary!
I had no idea that the delicious Indian and Pakistani basmati rice that I buy from my local asian grocery store might have been grown in sewage!
They certainly don't advertise this at the grocery store. And this article mentions that high levels of arsenic in rice was a "well-known" problem, linking of FDA's advice on the matter:[1]
I had no idea about this either. Why isn't there more publicity about this?
What happened to the FDA's mission to protect the consumer? Why aren't rice imports tested for heavy metals?
If not an outright ban on products that fail to meet basic safety standards, at the very least the FDA could require clear labeling of these products, so the consumer at least has half a chance of avoiding them if they are concerned. And who wouldn't be concerened about accidentally poisoning themselves on sewage-grown rice?
[1] - http://www.fda.gov/forconsumers/consumerupdates/ucm319827.ht...