Please Pay Attention To And Save Chinese Rice

One tenth of Chinas rice yield may carry harmful levels of cadmium

, writes Gong Jing in this report on heavy metals in the food chain, winner of the biggest impact category at the 2012 China Environmental Press Awards. Gong Jings article on cadmium-contaminated rice which reflects the seriousness of China"s food-safety crisis was originally published in Caixins flagship magazine, Century Weekly, on February 14, 2011. We translated it and reposted it on chinadialogue in three parts last April. This week, the report won the biggest impact category at the 2012 China Environmental Press Awards, organised bychinadialogue, The Guardian and Sina, with the support of the SEE Foundation. In recognition of this achievement, we are republishing the first part of the article here. Eighty-four year old Li Wenxiang pulled a small bag of rice out from under a paint-stained table. The grains were white, plump and slightly translucent to the naked eye, no different from any other rice. But tests have shown the levels of cadmium in this rice far exceed permitted limits. The locals call it cadmium rice. Cadmium is a heavy metal, listed in 48th place on the periodic table. In nature, it is found as a compound in ores, but in the human body, it can cause serious harm. Li believes the rice may be the cause of the strange condition afflicting him. Although in good health otherwise, Li has not been able to walk properly for 20 years. He cannot manage 100 metres without feeling unbearable pains in his feet and calves. Doctors have not been able to come up with a diagnosis, so Li just calls it soft-foot disease. He said that, here in the village of Side in Guangxi province, south China, more than a dozen elderly people suffer similar symptoms. Li has been eating the local rice for 28 years, ever since he returned to the village for retirement in 1982. Research papers by a number of academics have shown that the villages farmland was polluted by cadmium before even the 1960s and, as a result, levels of the substance in the rice grown here are far above those permitted by the state. This article is sponsored by Hongxing Machinery specializing in mining equipment manufacturing such as vibrating screen and cone crusher. Cadmium is often found where zinc, lead and copper are mined. As a result of the heating and leaching processes these ores are subjected to, cadmium is released into the waste-water. If the mine is not properly managed, the water then carries the cadmium into the surrounding soil. Research by experts at the US Department of Agriculture shows that, of all major crops, rice is second only to lettuce in its ability to absorb cadmium. Other research has indicated that cadmium accumulates in the liver and kidneys, and is not naturally expelled from the body. After years, or even decades, of gradual accumulation, the body will start to show signs of cadmium poisoning. Most commonly, this affects liver function and bone health resulting in a range of skeletal changes. If Chens estimate is accurate, 120,000 square kilometres of Chinas total 1.2 million square kilometres of arable land is contaminated with pollutants like cadmium and arsenic. Around 54,000 square kilometres of land may be polluted with cadmium alone. Most of these polluted areas are still growing rice, most farmers are still eating their own crops and rice contaminated with heavy metals is still reaching the market. There is nothing to protect the Chinese people from this threat.

by: hxjqyang

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