The U.S. Food and Drug Association currently concluded an experiment involving the testing of arsenic in rice and rice products.

The FDA found there are no immediate short-term health concerns with eating rice and rice products, but controversy within the consumer’s union still holds for the ongoing experiment to see whether or not there are any long-term health concerns and if the amount of rice and rice products consumed should be regulated.

When walking into a restaurant or fast-food joint, there are the usual food items and then there is a section for healthier alternatives; most times including brown rice or products containing rice flour. Brown rice is tested as having the highest amount of arsenic among the rice in the FDA’s experiment.

“It was hard to maintain my gluten-free diet,” junior, Zoe Dittman said, “Everything had rice and it made me worried that I was going to get sick.”

The lunch menu has gone through alterations to become healthier for the students who eat hot lunch, brown rice being one of the added changes versus the previous white rice causing discussion among the health staff.

“I like, you know, adding brown rice. They don’t have it every day. But if you have a gluten-free diet and you eat more rice products then you may want to look into that a little bit more,” licensed nurse, Susan Peterson said.

Though the levels of arsenic in rice and rice products are not unsafe to eat, they still have risen. This has caused much debate within the medical community about what is the maximum safe amount of arsenic to consume. “Arsenic, is it a concern? Yes, absolutely, it’s a huge concern. But is it something I’m going to lose sleep over? No,” said Peterson

The concern started when pesticides began to have more arsenic in them. The pesticides get into the water and the rice absorbs a portion of it. This is causing a debate about pesticides and the blame falling on pesticides for the arsenic rises in rice and rice products. The more debate that occurs, the more nervous the community is becoming.

“When you start to put that information out there you need to follow it with a reputable source or else you just read opinions,” said Perterson.

The long-term effects of arsenic include cancer and skin problems which is a main reason the consumers union is worried.

“My family has a history with people having skin cancer, actually, which kind of freaked me out,” said Dittman.

The consumers union is working at getting the public more aware of this ongoing matter.

Junior Bailey Hesse-Withbroe said, “I was unaware of these concerns [and] I am slightly worried because I do eat a lot of rice.”

“I knew of the ongoing concerns but I don’t know the depth of them,” added Peterson.

The FDA continues research to discover whether or not long-term health concerns exist regarding rice. The FDA has not said when the results of the further research will be released.