ABSTRACT
Contamination of groundwater with arsenic(As) from natural sources is endemic in the West Bengal region of India. Despite increased awareness regarding the consumption of safe water for drinking, the use of groundwater for agricultural purposes, cooking and other domestic tasks still prevails. This study evaluates the effect on the contents of the three metals induced by washing and cooking the rice with groundwater, which provides a more realistic estimation of the dietary intake of As, than the concentration in the raw foodstuff alone. There is a marked increase on the As contents in the cooked rice (up to 232%), however, the accumulation is highly dependent on the type of rice, with processed commercial samples (many of them parboiled) presenting a lower capacity to retain As during washing and cooking that the local varieties available among the villagers.
