High Levels Of Toxic Metals - Especially Cadmium - Increasingly Common In Chinese Rice

[hatrack]

For decades, high levels of cadmium and other toxic heavy metals have polluted China’s waterways. Through irrigation they have ended up in village rice paddies. Villagers complain of bone pains. Some have stopped eating their own crops, feeding it to livestock, or selling it if they can.

Chinese farmer Huang Yunsheng, 74, was not able to sell a single pound of his 2010 rice harvest. “The grain husks are all black. Nobody would take it. We didn’t dare to eat it ourselves, so we fed it all to our chickens and pigs,” Huang told the Southern Weekly in a Jan. 6 report.

Huang’s misfortune started when a manganese mine opened up in the 1950’s near his village in Xiangtan County of Hunan Province, one of China’s largest rice-growing areas. The mine first covered the mountain village with dusty air, and then gradually polluted the water and soil.

Huang said the agricultural output of the village has been dropping for many years. His land now produces only half of what it used to. Land closer to the mine often produces nothing, he said. A 2007 government report revealed that the mining operation has damaged the waterways in the area. But in 2009 the villagers found out they are in bigger trouble: their rice is polluted by cadmium, an extremely toxic heavy metal that, if ingested, may cause kidney damage, pulmonary emphysema, and bone disease--even cancer.

EDIT

http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/china/chinas-toxic-rice-problem-52331.html

[LiberalLoner]

1. If the right-wingers had their way, we would be exactly like China. n/t K&R

[dixiegrrrrl]

6. Sounds like we are well on our way:

“The regime is the real cause of broken civil society in China.
It does not care about the welfare of people, but espouses a system of survival of the fittest.
Its starting point has always been to use the people to enrich itself.”

[Buzz Clik]

2. Interesting. And a link from the same site: "Leather Milk" Surfaces in China

Human health problems from cadmium pollution can be somewhat elusive, but Cr(VI) contamination in milk? Insidious. Why do the Chinese put so much stock in artificially increasing protein content of food by mixing the food with industrial byproducts? Bizarre.

http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/china/leather-milk-surfaces-in-china-51637.html

[eppur_se_muova]

9. It's a scam to up the market price. Dealers are defrauding their customers.

You remember when pet food made in China was found to be contaminated with byproduct/waste from the manufacture of melamine plastics (basically melamine plus formaldehyde)? This came about because soy meal was priced by grades, with that having the highest protein content getting the highest price. Protein content was evaluated using an extremely generalized test which just analyzed the nitrogen content, and then assumed all the nitrogen came from protein -- a shaky assumption, even without product tampering. "Businessmen" quickly figured out that they could "dope" the soy meal with some cheap substance that happened to be rich in nitrogen and up the price. Melamine is about 2/3 N by weight, and melamine/formaldehyde resin is not much lower. Furthermore, the manufacture of the resin produces a lot of scrap and byproduct which can be ground into a powder and mixed into soy meal without altering its appearance. Since the meal was intended for pet food only, it didn't have to pass more rigorous standards, such as taste and texture. The resin scrap has no nutritional value, and actually killed a lot of pets, but because it gave a misleading "protein" (actually nitrogen) assay it made someone some money.

In the case of "leather milk", they're using leather byproducts that actually contain protein and protein hydrolysis products -- which might seem to be a little improvement -- but which also contain chemicals used to clean and tan leather, including chromium(VI).

ETA: Such scams were actually very common in this country, until the creation of the FDA. Imagine no safety standards, no inspection of food, no accurate reporting -- or even *records* -- of food content. That was America in the Gilded Age. It took muckraking reporters and a progressive Republican president to put a stop to it, and every weakening of food safety laws since has been a step back to that era.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pure_Food_and_Drug_Act

[bananas]

12. Melamine was added to baby milk formula after the pet food scandal was exposed

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Chinese_milk_scandal

[eppur_se_muova]

15. "a large-scale intentional activity to deceive consumers for simple, basic, short-term profits"

Succinctly put.

Chinese courts handed down three death sentences (one suspended), three life sentences, two 15-year jail terms, and numerous resignations.

If it had happened here, there'd have been golden parachutes, and two decades of inconclusive litigation and appeals, eventually ended after the lawyers' fees had exhausted available funds.

[txlibdem]

18. It's only fair to mention what happened to the company executives responsible for that

As I recall, 8 were put in front of a firing squad in China.

Now all we have to do is get proper justice for CEOs here in the USA. Why have none of the crooked banksters or mortgage brokers been brought to justice here?!? System rigged? Ahhhhhh, you betcha!

[eppur_se_muova]

16. Correction: it was wheat gluten, not soy meal.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_pet_food_recalls

The idea is the same, though: wheat gluten -- off-white powder. Melamine scrap, pulverized -- off-white powder. Mixing not visibly obvious, but nitrogen content boosted, as were short-term profits. Long-term, two of the guilty were executed. Not a good business model.

[damntexdem]

3. Hey, what the world really needs from China are rare earths.

Can't they put those in their rice?

;-)

[phantom power]

4. Rice miners!

[phantom power]

5. No, no, I asked for the *jasmine* rice, not "cadmium" rice

[Dogmudgeon]

13. The starving children in America would be HAPPY to have your Cadmium Rice!

Now you'll eat it, like a good Phantom, or there will be no Coal Mercury Tuna for dessert.

--d!

[dixiegrrrrl]

7. A related story at the link talks about how the wealthy avoid contaminated food.

Which is very interesting,because I was wondering how the rich here avoid the same.

"....some Chinese citizens began to realize that the food their central government leaders eat came from different sources than their own.
Is it no wonder then, that those leaders are not worried about food safety, and are not paying attention to its supervision? "

that sentence is about 2/3 of the way thru the article on "leather milk", detailing the appalling contaminated food
situation in China.

“This is a society where people are poisoning each other,” Guo told Hong Kong’s Ming Pao.

"Guo said the social environment in China is rapidly deteriorating, with the deterioration starting at the top with different professions each having their own ways to benefit themselves by hurting others. "

http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/opinion/wealthy-chinese-are-pursuing-their-own-food-safety-47200.html

( Not sure about the source, the story seems detailed enough tho)

edited: corrected link

[phantom power]

8. it's funny how that works, isn't it.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

10. The Epoch Times is a great paper

imho :)

[Codeine]

11. "Se we fed it to our chickens and pigs"

Mmmmmm, concentrated heavy metals in the sweet and sour pork.

[Nihil]

19. Yeah, that got me too!

Food chain fail or what?

[kestrel91316]

14. Guess I gotta spring for California-grown rice now and pay even MORE.

[txlibdem]

17. And why should their rice be different from their milk, dairy products, dog food, toys... etc

I do not buy anything from China unless there is absolutely no way to avoid it.

I repair my broken stuff now or look for something made in another country. They have proven that they do not care about the consumer, why should we buy products made in China?!?

[XemaSab]

20. Xema's not a fan of China

n/t