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Posted by Judith Hilton on August 30th 2007 in Science, safety and health

Andrew is in Scotland at the moment taking a couple of days leave so I'm blogging in his absence. I saw today's piece on BBC News online about water quality in the developing world and the particular problem of arsenic in water and subsequently in rice.

Arsenic at high levels can cause cancer; the metal is present naturally in soil, and is thought to leach into groundwater. If wells are not dug deep enough then it can be a real problem.

We also take the issue of arsenic seriously in the UK and in October 2006 and May of this year published surveys looking at the levels of particular metals in infant foods and formula.

We didn't find any cause for health concerns in this survey but we are looking to do more work and will be publishing a review of the scientific literature on arsenic in rice in the autumn.

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