Abstract
Groundwater arsenic contamination is a crucial drinking water quality issue leading to various health hazards in rural people globally. Moreover, irrigation of agricultural fields with arsenic-contaminated groundwater has led to increase of arsenic in soil, with consecutive elevation of arsenic in crops grown up on these soils, particularly in Bengal Delta. The present study attempts to measure arsenic uptake level from these contaminated soils and groundwater logging by paddy plants at various stages of its cultivation. Distribution of arsenic from root to grain has been further studied. Finally, variation of arsenic concentration in the grain for both sunned and parboiled rice was investigated. The observations provided deeper insight into the arsenic accumulation, distribution, and role of parboiling in additional entry of arsenic. Arsenic concentrations were found to be considerably high in all the parts of paddy plant in final stage of cultivation with hundred folds higher accumulation in roots and minimum in grain. Role of post-harvesting procedures in additional entry of arsenic during parboiling was statistically confirmed by observing higher concentrations in parboiled rice grain and its by-products. This study, therefore, suggests use of arsenic-free water for both irrigational and parboiling processes to minimize arsenic exposure through food chain.
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