Problems with the instrument lead to misleading American rice Asian lead exceeded

At the American Chemical Society's annual meeting in April this year, Assistant Professor at the University of Monmouth, Chanaguraj Tungsayyi, issued a report stating that the lead imported by the United States from Asia, Europe and South America is generally seriously polluted by lead. The content ranges from 6 mg to 12 mg per kilogram, exceeding the standard by several times. Among them, rice from China has the highest lead content. The results of the study attracted high attention after being reported by the media.

The International Rice Research Institute said in its official website blog that the study was "shocked" by rice research experts because previous studies showed that rice's ability to absorb lead is not strong, even in areas where the soil is heavily contaminated with lead. The lead content is not high, "For rice food safety, lead is not a very worrying issue."

In fact, after the conclusion of Tonggsay’s report was announced, some experts questioned it. Luo Fuchani, an expert at the USDA Agricultural Research Institute who has worked on soil heavy metal pollution research for many years, told Xinhua News Agency: “After I knew this matter, I immediately wrote to Tonguesai. (Before) National survey showed that American rice The lead content is 0.007 milligrams per kilogram, so Tongsay’s conclusion seems unlikely.”

Pan Genxing, a professor at Nanjing Agricultural University, said that they have never detected such high levels of lead even in heavily polluted rice producing areas such as Hunan. He speculated: "He (Tonggesai) is an expert in food and may not be very clear about the mechanism of soil pollution."

Tongsay was originally used X-ray fluorescence spectrometer to detect heavy metal content in rice. However, under the advice of Chaney et al., he adopted a different method to review the sample. The new test showed that imported rice sold on the U.S. market was not contaminated with lead. Tongsay said to the reporter: “We have sent the instrument back to the manufacturer. The manufacturer told us that the measurement accuracy of the instrument and the X-ray tube are problematic. The instrument is currently being repaired.”

However, Tenggeesi still insisted that he only asked the "Journal of Environmental Science and Health," "for the time being not published" related papers, not as Chaney and others said "withdraw" thesis. Tongsay said that when the equipment is repaired, they plan to reanalyze the samples. If the detected results are similar to the beginning, they will be sent to a third-party laboratory for further testing.

For this "Oodong Incident", the American Rice Federation said that the main problem was that the researchers did not follow the industry guidelines that must first pass peer review before the researchers released the research results. This is another example. Channi believes that the media must also bear certain responsibilities, "A tragic incident caused by bad scientific research. The media released scientific news but did not fully verify the results, the result is to spread the blame all over the world."