Total arsenic and inorganic arsenic in Myanmar rice

Myanmar is a major rice exporter. Rice is an important source of nourishment for its population. However, rice can be contaminated with toxic elements, including arsenic, long-term exposure to which has been linked to several illnesses, including cancer. There is a paucity of published data on arsenic in Myanmar rice. This study analysed rice (n = 50) from southern, middle and northern Myanmar for both total arsenic (T-As) (by ICP-MS) and inorganic arsenic (i-As) (by species-specific hydride generation ICP-MS or HPLC-ICP-MS). The mean concentration of T-As was 110 μg kg^-1(IQR 75-142 μg kg^-1), of which 86 μg kg^-1 (IQR 58-113 μg kg^-1) was high toxicity i-As. The calculated mean i-As intake arising from typical consumption of this rice normalised to typical body weights in Myanmar was approximately 1 μg.kg-bw^-1.day^-1, close to the recently withdrawn WHO, PTWI of 2.1 μg.kg-bw^-1.day^-1and higher than the EFSA reported BMDL₀₅ for skin cancers of 0.06 μg.kg-bw^-1.day^-1.