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Title: Climate Change Will Make Rice Toxic, Say Researchers

Link: https://news.slashdot.org/story/25/04/18/1115...

Rice, the world's most consumed grain, will become increasingly toxic as the
atmosphere heats and as carbon dioxide emissions rise, potentially putting
billions of people at risk of cancers and other diseases, according to new
research published this week in The Lancet. From a report: Eaten every day by
billions of people and grown across the globe, rice is arguably the planet's
most important staple crop, with half the world's population relying on it
for the majority of its food needs, especially in developing countries. But
the way rice is grown -- mostly submerged in paddies -- and its highly porous
texture mean it can absorb unusually high levels of arsenic, a potent
carcinogenic toxin that is especially dangerous for babies. After growing
rice in controlled fields for six years, researchers from Columbia University
and international partners found that when both temperature and CO2 increased
in line with climate projections, arsenic levels in rice grains rose
significantly. "When we put both of them together, then wow, that was really
something we were not expecting," said Lewis Ziska, a plant physiologist at
Columbia University who led the study. "You're looking at a crop staple
that's consumed by a billion people every day, and any effect on toxicity is
going to have a pretty damn large effect." Inorganic arsenic exposure has
been linked to cancers, heart disease, and neurological problems in infants.
Disease risk rose across all seven top rice-consuming Asian countries
analyzed. "This is one more reason to intervene -- to control people's
exposure," said co-author Keeve Nachman of Johns Hopkins University. "The No.
1 thing we can do is everything in our power to slow climate change."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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