Millions of people (including infants) of our country may be affected by arsenic from rice and they do not know much about the sources. Rice tends to uptake arsenic more readily than many other plants from soil and water. Prolong exposure to arsenic in food and water can cause cancer in the skin, lungs, bladder and kidney.

Removing arsenic from rice is hard and therefore scientists are trying to develop methods solve the problem. A recent article published in a well-recognised journal (PLOS ONE) demonstrated that we can remove a significant amount of arsenic by modifying our rice cooking procedure.

Boil your rice with water (water to rice ratio: 12:1) and discard the water after cooking. Significant amount of arsenic will be released from rice to water (depends on type of rice, with average removal of 57±5 percent of arsenic). Use of more water is better. 

Many year ago, we wrote a letter (Arsenic contamination, The Daily Star, December 14, 2002) with a different type of solution. People may use that procedure as well (copied here for quick review): "Water that is not absorbed during rice cooking is discarded by inverting the cooking pan. Thus the actual amount of arsenic in cooked rice could not be either used, by chelating the arsenic in water by binding on rice grains, or decreased if water-soluble arsenic is released from rice into the water to be discarded. Since an adult Bangladeshi man consume an average 1500 gram of cooked rice per day, which contain at least one litre of drinking water, water intake through cooked rice would add substantially to the amount of arsenic ingested. (. . . )

Recently, a research group reported that the amount of arsenic in cooked rice was 10 to 35 percent higher than predicted, suggesting either that arsenic in the water is chelated by rice grains, or that the arsenic becomes concentrated during the cooking process because of evaporation. Furthermore, it would be raise concerns about the amount of arsenic retained in curry, which is cooked with a large amount of water and simmered for a long time.

It may be better to use less water for cooking food. Also, people must use surface water (pond, lake, river water) for cooking and drinking purposes, as heating kills all dangerous germs. Rain water is a very good source of safe water. Surface water is comparatively free from arsenic contamination. Related NGOs and teachers should teach general people to overcome the severe arsenic problem in Bangladesh" 

The writers are PhD, University of Houston College of Pharmacy, and PhD, Baylor College of Medicine, respectively.