High levels of 'arsenic' present in Bengal's favourite parboiled rice

KOLKATA. Rice is a staple in the eastern part of India and it is no secret that West Bengal prefers rice over chappatis.
And of all the types of available rice in the market, the citizens of Kolkata love parboiled rice (Seddho Chal) the most, even more than sunned rice (Atap Chal).
But little do they know that their favourite parboiled rice contains enough arsenic to cause trouble in a human body.Arsenic is a chemical element which is highly toxic in its inorganic form.
This startling discovery has been made by the researchers of the School of Environmental Studies of Jadavpur University (JU).
According to them, parboiled rice contains 205% more arsenic than sunned rice. Parboiled or Seddho rice is consumed by an average Bengali household not just in meals but is also used to prepare food items like parched rice. The researchers are worried about the outcome of this study.
West Bengal is one of the most arsenic contaminated states in the country. Out of 341 blocks in the state, 108 blocks have their ground water affected by arsenic.
Districts like North and South 24 pargana, Nadia, Hooghly, Bardhaman and Mursidabad are highly affected by arsenic.
Such elevated level of arsenic is affecting the cultivation of paddy. The rice exported from these areas reaches other parts of the state and is unwittingly consumed by the people.
Director of JU's School of Environmental Studies, Professor Tarit Roychoudhury said, “We have collected samples of sunned rice from the Deganga block and have found that every kg of the rice contains a minimum of 66 microgram arsenic. And in the same quantity of parboiled rice, 186 microgram arsenic is found.”
As 95% of the rice used in Bengal is parboiled, it poses more danger to its population than people from any other state.
Nilanjana Roychoudhury, who was associated with the project said, “To create sunned rice, the paddy grain does not need to be boiled but to create parboiled it has to boiled twice. And that boiling is usually done with arsenic contaminated water.”
Prof. Roychoudhry added, “When boiled with normal water, it was found that the level of arsenic in the rice goes down.”
As a result, the researchers a now suggested using arsenic free water for boiling the paddy grains to prepare parboiled rice.
Read this story in Bengali