Arsenic is a poison.

It is a significant health risk to millions of people worldwide when it is there

in food and drink. It is highly poisonous at higher doses but chronic exposure to lower levels
increases the risk of cancer of skin, bladder, lungs, kidney ,liver, colon , prostrate; cardiac
disease, pulmonary disease, cardiovascular disease ,diabetes; diseases of arteries and capillaries ;
increased sensitivity to Hepatitis B infection , infertility, and other ailments .Observable
symptoms to the arsenic poisoning can be thickening and discoloration of skin, stomach pain
,nausea , vomiting , diarrhea , paralysis and blindness (Islam,M.S. and F.Islam .2007;
iwawaterwiki.org ).
Arsenic occurs naturally in soil, water, air, plants and animals. There are two forms of arsenic:
organic and inorganic. Both are easily absorbed, but the inorganic form is more harmful. It
accumulates in body organ, is classified as a carcinogen and may affect different chemical and
metabolic processes in the body.
Rice is an arsenic magnet:
Rice is very efficient in taking up arsenic, because it is grown in water-flooded situation. That
reduces the binding of arsenic by soil. It makes arsenic more available to rice. The semi-aquatic
nature of rice plant and grain gives the option to pull arsenic up from readily available sources. It
is a fact that arsenic is a naturally occurring contaminant and because it is in soil and water, so it
is going to get into food. Rice takes more arsenic from the soil than other crops. This is because
of the way rice is grown. Rice is grown in flooded areas which charge the soil readily releasing
arsenic from the soil.
Rice is most affected by arsenic uptake. The flooded soil is anaerobic and strongly reduced. In
this situation arsenic is readily available to rice plants roots. Moreover, huge amount of water is
used for irrigated rice than is used for aerobic culture. Different varieties of rice differ in arsenic
tolerance. Seriously affected varieties develop straight head disease, empty panicle at maturity
(Brammer, 2008).
Scale & Impact of arsenic contamination:
Groundwater in 61 out of 64 districts in Bangladesh is charged with arsenic in different
concentrations. Concentration of arsenic exceeding 1.00 mg per liter of water is observed in 17
districts including Chandpur, Comilla, Noakhali, Feni, Munshiganj, Brahmanbaria, Faridpur,
Madaripur, Laksmipur, Gopalganj, Shariatpur, Narayenganj, Narail, Satkhira and
Chapainawabganj.
Arsenic contaminated irrigation water decrease seed germination, plant height, root growth and
yield of rice (Abedin et. al. 2002).
Arsenic toxicity reduces rice yield:
Rice variety BRRI dhan 29 suffered from decreased yield from 8.9 ton/ha at 26.3 ppm soil
arsenic to 3 ton /ha at 57.5 ppm arsenic .The results indicated that the practical limit for paddy
production might lie between 25-50 mg/kg soil arsenic (Duxburry and Panaullah 2007) .
Arsenic contaminated irrigation water reduced yield of BRRI dhan 29 progressively from 7 - 9 to
2 - 3 tons per hectare with increasing soil arsenic content. The average yield loss was 16 percent.
The likelihood of arsenic induced yield reduction and arsenic accumulation in straw and grain
have implication to agricultural sustainability, food quality ad food security in arsenic affected
regions (Panaullah et al. 2008).
At higher dose (2.0 mg/l) of arsenic , the yield of BRRI dhan 28 and BRRI dhan 29 decreased 16
percent from control .The accumulation of arsenic was found to be higher in BRRI dhan 29 than
in BRRIdhan 28(Huq and Joardar 2008) .
Arsenic in rice grown in low arsenic environment:

Arsenic measurement in shallow tube well water, soils and rice grains from boro (dry) and aman
(wet) seasons from six upazilas of Bangladesh where arsenic levels in ground water were known
to be low, revealed:
1. The arsenic concentration in tube wells was less than 50 microgram per liter.
2. The arsenic concentration in soil samples ranged between 0.2 - 4.0 mg per kg in the samples
collected during the boro season.
3. The arsenic concentration in soil ranged between 0.4 - 5.7 mg per kg in the samples collected
in the aman season.
Levels of arsenic in both boro and aman grain varied widely:
in boro 0.02 - 0.45 mg per kg
in aman 0.01 - 0.29 mg per kg
Household survey on dietary habits revealed, on an average the women consumed 3.1 liter of
water, 1.1 kg of cooked rice and 42gm of dry weight of curry per day. The total ingestion of
arsenic rates ranged from 31.1 - 129.3 microgram per day (mean 63.5 microgram per day). It was
indicated that the major route of arsenic in Bangladesh is rice followed by curry and water (Islam
et al. 2012).
Arsenic in irrigation water:
Increasing content of arsenic in irrigation water led to increasing arsenic content in rice plants
and consequent decreasing plant yield (Abedin et al. 2002).
Arsenic in rice grain:
An analysis of 330 boro and aman rice samples collected from food markets - basket in different
parts of Bangladesh revealed that the districts with the highest mean arsenic rice grain levels
(microgram arsenic per gram) were all collected from south - western Bangladesh including
Faridpur (boro), 0.51; Satkhira (boro), 0.38; Satkhira (aman), 0.36; Chuadanga (boro), 0-32 and
Meherpur (boro), 0.29 (Williams et al. 2006).
The vast majority of food ingested arsenic in Bangladesh was found to be inorganic with the
predominant portion in rice being arsenite or arsenate with dimethyl arsenic acid being a major
component.
Linkage of rice arsenic with irrigation:
A highly significant increasing trend of arsenic accumulation in straw, grain and soil was found
with increase of arsenic in irrigation water (Azad et al. 2013).
Low arsenic rice:
A total of 98 samples of rice collected from Sylhet region, which generally has a lower ground
water arsenic concentration, revealed lower arsenic in aromatic rice. There was 40 percent less
arsenic in aromatic rice than non-aromatic varieties that it also contained higher concentration of
the essential elements like selenium and zinc (Low-Arsenic Rice Discovered in Bangladesh
Could Have Major Health Benefits).
Higher arsenic levels in those who eat more rice:
People who eat more rice have higher levels of arsenic in their systems. Thus it was inferred that
eating rice might expose some people to potentially harmful levels of arsenic. Women who
consumed rice had higher levels of total arsenic in their urine, compared with those who did not
consume rice. Each gram of rice consumed was associated with one percent increase in total
urinary arsenic. Exposure to arsenic early in life as in the parental period, are probably more
important because this is when humans are particularly vulnerable to disease development. The
early life exposure of arsenic may be prime drivers of cancers (Higher Arsenic Levels Found in
Those Who Eat More Rice).

Implications for Bangladesh

Rice is the staple food of the people in Bangladesh. It provides about 48 percent of rural
employment, two-third of total calorie supply and about one half of the total protein need of an
average person. Rice contributes one half of the agricultural GDP and one sixth of the national
income. All most all of the 13 million farm families of Bangladesh grow rice. It is grown in
about 10.5 million hectares. About 75% of the total cropped area and over 40% of the total
irrigated area is planted to rice (knowledge bank - brri.org/rice in ban.phb).
Rice is the main staple food in Bangladesh. Now it is contaminated with arsenic. The main
source of arsenic is irrigation from extraction of ground water. More than 50% of rice in
Bangadesh is now grown with irrigation from ground water and that is the main source of
contamination of arsenic.
There is an urgent need of selecting crops that need less water for cultivation. It is known that
maize needs about 850 liter of water for one kg grain production with 2 - 4 irrigations. Wheat
needs 1000 liter per kg of grain production in 1-3 irrigations compared with over 3000 liter per
kg of boro rice grown with 20-25 irrigations. Wheat and maize can be successfully grown as
alternative crops to boro season rice.
With a view to shifting out of the vicious cycle of arsenic poisoning, we need to change our rice
culture and food habit. We can only use surface water for irrigation and shift to residual moisture
and rain-fed agriculture. We should grow more rain-fed aus rice and aman rice. The cropping
pattern may be redesigned: in the Rabi season wheat/maize/potato/pulses/oil
seeds/vegetables/spices/fruits/sweet potato - followed by rain-fed aus rice/ jute/summer
vegetables/
sesame
in
Kharif-1,
followed
by
rain-fed
aman
rice/summer
vegetables/potato/soybean/black gram /groundnut.
We also need to diversity our diet, ease off dependence on rice and increase other items including
fruits, vegetables, pulses, beans, fish, meat, milk, egg and other cereals like wheat, maize, barley
and millets.
References
1 .Abedin M.J., J.Cotter - Howells and A.A. Meharg. 2002. Arsenic uptake and accumulation in
rice (Oryza sativa) irrigated with contaminated water. Plant & Soil. 240 (2): 311 - 319.
2 .Abedin, M. J., M. S. Crasser, A.A. Meharg, J. Feldman, J. Cotter- Howell. 2002. Arsenic
accumulation and metabolism in rice (Oryza sativa). Environ Sci. Technol. 36:962.
3 .Azad, M.A.K., A.H.M.F.K. Monda, I. Hossain, M. Moniruzzaman. 2013. Experiment for
Arsenic Accumulation into Rice Cultivated with Arsenic Enriched Irrigation Water in
Bangladesh. American Journal of Environmental Protection. 1(3): 54 - 58.
4 .Brammer, H. 2008. Threat of arsenic to agriculture in India, Bangladesh and Nepal.
Environment portal. in/files/threat of Arsenic to Agriculture.pdf.
5 .Duxbury J.M. and G.M. Panaullah. 2007. Remediation of arsenic for agriculture sustainability,
food security and health in Bangladesh. FAO Water Working Paper, FAO, Rome.
6. Huq,S.M.I. and J.C. Joardar . 2008. Effect of balanced fertilization on arsenic and other heavy
metals uptake in rice and other crops . Bangladesh J. Agric and Environ 4: 177-191.
7.Islam,M.S. and F.Islam.2007.iwawaterwiki.org
8 .Islam, M.A., H.Brammer, G.K.M. Mustafizur Rahman, Andrea Raab, M. Jahiruddin, A.R.M.
Solaiman, Audrew A. Meharg, Gareth J. Norton. 2012. Arsenic in rice, grown in low arsenic
environments in Bangladesh, Springer, com/article/10.1007/ZFS.

9 .Panaullah, G.M. Tarique Alam, M. Baktiar Hossain, Richard H. Loeppert, Julie G. Lauren,
Craig A. Meisner, Zia U. Ahmed and J.M. Duxbury. 2008. Arsenic toxicity to rice (Oryza sativa)
in Bangladesh, Plant Soil DOI 10.1007/S 11104-008-9786-y.
10.Williams, P.N., M.R. Islam, E.E Adomako, A. Rab, S.A. Hossain, Y.G.Zhu and A.A. Meharg.
2006. Increase in rice grain arsenic for regions of Bangladesh irrigating paddies with elevated
arsenic in ground water. Environ Sci. Technol. 40:4903 - 4908.
See
more
at:
http://ubinig.org/index.php/campaigndetails/showAerticle/12/26/english#sthash.ZLEnBXW1.dp
uf