title: Arsenic species in raw and cooked rice: implications for human health in rural Bengal.
abstract: This study compares the concentrations of total and different species of arsenic (As) in 29 pairs of raw and cooked rice samples collected from households in an area of West Bengal affected by endemic arsenicism. The aim is to investigate the effects of indigenous cooking practice of the rural villagers on As accumulation and speciation in cooked rice. It is found that inorganic As is the predominant species in both raw (93.8%) and cooked rice (88.1%). Cooking of rice with water low in As (<10 μg L(-1)) significantly decreases the total and inorganic As content in cooked rice compared to raw rice. Arsenic concentration is mainly decreased during boiling of rice grains with excess water. Washing of rice grains with low As water has negligible effect on grain As concentration. The study suggests that rice cooking with low As water by the villagers is a beneficial risk reduction strategy. Despite reductions in As content in cooked rice because of cooking with low As water, the consumption of cooked rice represents a significant health threat (in terms of chronic As toxicity) to the study population.
authors.affiliation: KTH-International Groundwater Arsenic Research Group, Division of Land and Water Resources Engineering, Department of Sustainable Development, Environmental Sciences and Engineering, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Teknikringen 76, SE-100 44 Stockholm, Sweden; Department of Chemistry, University of Kalyani, Kalyani, 741 235, West Bengal, India. Electronic address: dipti@kth.se.
authors.forename: Dipti
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Halder
authors.affiliation: KTH-International Groundwater Arsenic Research Group, Division of Land and Water Resources Engineering, Department of Sustainable Development, Environmental Sciences and Engineering, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Teknikringen 76, SE-100 44 Stockholm, Sweden; Department of Chemistry, University of Kalyani, Kalyani, 741 235, West Bengal, India.
authors.forename: Ashis
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Biswas
authors.affiliation: Environmental Sciences Department, Jožef Stefan Institute, Jamova 39, 1000, Ljubljana, Slovenia.
authors.forename: Zdenka
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Šlejkovec
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University of Kalyani, Kalyani, 741 235, West Bengal, India.
authors.forename: Debashis
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Chatterjee
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Health Sciences, School of Public Health, University of Michigan, 109 Observatory Street, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2029, USA.
authors.forename: Jerome
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Nriagu
authors.affiliation: KTH-International Groundwater Arsenic Research Group, Division of Land and Water Resources Engineering, Department of Sustainable Development, Environmental Sciences and Engineering, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Teknikringen 76, SE-100 44 Stockholm, Sweden.
authors.forename: Gunnar
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Jacks
authors.affiliation: KTH-International Groundwater Arsenic Research Group, Division of Land and Water Resources Engineering, Department of Sustainable Development, Environmental Sciences and Engineering, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Teknikringen 76, SE-100 44 Stockholm, Sweden.
authors.forename: Prosun
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Bhattacharya
mesh_terms: D001151:Arsenic / Q000032:analysis*; D020261:Arsenic Poisoning; D003296:Cooking; D004781:Environmental Exposure / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005506:Food Contamination / Q000032:analysis*; D012275:Oryza / Q000737:chemistry*; D012989:Soil Pollutants / Q000032:analysis*
chemical_list: D012989:Soil Pollutants; D001151:Arsenic
keywords: Arsenic speciation; Cooked rice; Daily intake; Health risk assessment; Raw rice