Total arsenic and inorganic arsenic in Myanmar rice
May M. Alrashdi,
Ilya Strashnov,
Laura A. Richards,
Yin Min Tun,
Ahmed Al Bualy,
David A. Polya
Affiliations
May M. Alrashdi
Department of Chemistry, School of Natural Sciences, Faculty of Science and Engineering, The University of Manchester, Manchester, M13 9PL, United Kingdom; Chemistry Department, College of Science, Jouf University, P.O. Box: 2014, Sakaka, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia; Corresponding author. Department of Chemistry, School of Natural Sciences, Faculty of Science and Engineering, The University of Manchester, Manchester, M13 9PL, United Kingdom.
Ilya Strashnov
Department of Chemistry, School of Natural Sciences, Faculty of Science and Engineering, The University of Manchester, Manchester, M13 9PL, United Kingdom
Laura A. Richards
Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences and Williamson Research Centre for Molecular Environmental Sciences, School of Natural Sciences, Faculty of Science and Engineering, The University of Manchester, Manchester, M13 9PL, United Kingdom
Yin Min Tun
Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences and Williamson Research Centre for Molecular Environmental Sciences, School of Natural Sciences, Faculty of Science and Engineering, The University of Manchester, Manchester, M13 9PL, United Kingdom
Ahmed Al Bualy
Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences and Williamson Research Centre for Molecular Environmental Sciences, School of Natural Sciences, Faculty of Science and Engineering, The University of Manchester, Manchester, M13 9PL, United Kingdom; OQ Alternative Energy, PO Box 261, PC 118, Muscat, Oman
David A. Polya
Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences and Williamson Research Centre for Molecular Environmental Sciences, School of Natural Sciences, Faculty of Science and Engineering, The University of Manchester, Manchester, M13 9PL, United Kingdom; Corresponding author.
Myanmar is a major rice exporter. Rice is an important source of nourishment for its population. However, rice can be contaminated with toxic elements, including arsenic, long-term exposure to which has been linked to several illnesses, including cancer. There is a paucity of published data on arsenic in Myanmar rice. This study analysed rice (n = 50) from southern, middle and northern Myanmar for both total arsenic (T-As) (by ICP-MS) and inorganic arsenic (i-As) (by species–specific hydride generation ICP-MS or HPLC-ICP-MS). The mean concentration of T-As was 110 μg kg−1(IQR 75–142 μg kg−1), of which 86 μg kg−1 (IQR 58–113 μg kg−1) was high toxicity i-As. The calculated mean i-As intake arising from typical consumption of this rice normalised to typical body weights in Myanmar was approximately 1 μg.kg-bw−1.day−1, close to the recently withdrawn WHO, PTWI of 2.1 μg.kg-bw−1.day−1and higher than the EFSA reported BMDL05 for skin cancers of 0.06 μg.kg-bw−1.day−1.
