Rice is a major source of nourishment for billions of people around the world. But there is bad with the good: In Bangladesh and neighboring parts of India, rice can be a source of arsenic, because it is often grown in paddies flooded using well water contaminated by the toxic element.
A study in the journal Environmental Science and Technology examines the potential of a different growing technique to reduce arsenic levels in rice. Fang-Jie Zhao of Rothamsted Research in England and colleagues looked at what happened with arsenic under typical flooded paddy conditions and under aerobic conditions, where the soil is in contact with the air and is irrigated - the way corn and other crops are grown.
They found that in the flooding technique, arsenic concentrations in the soil-water solution were up to 16 times higher than in the aerobic method. The concentration of inorganic arsenic - considered the more toxic form - in the rice grains was nearly three times greater under flooded conditions.
Aerobic rice farming has been proposed as a way to save water . This new research suggests that the technique may have an added benefit as well.

HENRY FOUNTAIN