"The National Library of Medicine presents...
[Intro Music]
"What in the world is arsenic? Arsenic in our food."
Caleb: This rice is the best!
Whatever my mom put in it is so good!
Gloria: Lucky you, my lunch is so boring.
My apple juice is the best part.
Grace: I dunno you guys; think about what you're eating.
Caleb, I read online that arsenic is in rice.
And Gloria, I heard it's in apple juice too.
You guys could get arsenic poisoning!!
Caleb: I don't know, Grace, I don't think it's bad.
Tastes pretty delicious to me!
Gloria: I don't know either, but let's find out!
Caleb: What's arsenic anyway?
Grace: I remember Mr. Best naming it on the periodic table.
That's its chemical symbol.
Gloria: Yeah, he said it was an odorless, tasteless element.
Caleb: [alarmed] So how could we tell if it's in our food??
Gloria: Chill out, Caleb.
Let's first figure out where arsenic is.
Caleb: It's an element on the periodic table, right?
It's probably found in the earth, water, or air-
like a bunch of other ones.
Grace: Just found a great site from the
National Library of Medicine,
called the Environmental Health Student Portal, let's see!
Grace: It says arsenic is found in the Earth's crust,
air, and water.
Caleb: Humans also add arsenic to the environment through
farming and mining.
Caleb: People use arsenic in
wood preservatives and pesticides.
Gloria: Arsenic exists in different forms.
Pure arsenic is rare; it usually combines with other elements to
form compounds, or combinations.
Grace: Yeah, organic and inorganic compounds.
They're kinda like relationships;
some are more toxic than others.
Let me explain with the chalkboard.
Grace: When arsenic combines with carbon and hydrogen,
it makes organic arsenic compounds,
which are less toxic than inorganic ones.
Gloria: When arsenic combines with another element like
oxygen or chlorine, it makes inorganic compounds,
which are harmful to human health.
Caleb: What, I can't believe I'd never learned
the science-y words for this stuff.
Grace: Caleb, Mr. Best talked about that stuff two hours ago.
Caleb: Sorry, I forgot!
Grace: [incredulous] From two hours ago?
Caleb: What, I have a short memory!
Gloria: You guys, this doesn't tell me if I should be
worried about what's in my apple juice!
Is arsenic poisonous or not??
Caleb: My dad loves to read mystery books;
some of their plots have arsenic poisoning.
Grace: That's not pulled out of thin air; it can be toxic.
Bad things have happened in real life!
There was a 19th century Arctic explorer named
Charles Francis Hall.
Grace: He was perfectly healthy until
he drank a cup of coffee one day...and died!
People thought he died from a disease, so no one suspected
foul play, until almost 100 years later, when
a biographer looked into it.
The guy discovered that Hall died from a lot of arsenic in
his body...but the arsenic was only present in the last
two weeks of his life!
People say his crew murdered him.
Caleb: Wow, that's terrible!
Grace: I know, right!
Arsenic can be fatal, but can also cause other
health problems, like cancer, skin color changes,
and small warts.
Gloria: [heavily sarcastic] That's not alarming.
Caleb: [equally sarcastic] Not at all.
I see how that guy's crew put arsenic in his coffee,
but how's arsenic in my rice or Gloria's apple juice?
Grace: Arsenic is in soil and water, right?
Some of it can make its way to drinking water and food,
since rice, apples, and other fruits, vegetables, and
grains are grown in the soil.
There's a teeny bit of arsenic in a bunch of food.
Some plants though, like rice, take up arsenic from the soil
more readily than others.
Gloria: [worried] So we're in trouble, huh?
Caleb: Not exactly.
The dose makes the poison.
For example, aspirin is helpful for minor pain relief, and is
pretty safe in small amounts, but toxic in large ones.
Not just that, we're barely exposed to arsenic.
A teeny bit is in some food, but it's not like we're mining and
around high levels of it.
Grace: How do you know how much arsenic is okay?
Gloria: Have you heard of the Environmental Protection Agency,
or EPA?
My uncle works there!
It regulates how much chemicals are allowed in stuff.
Grace: Let's see what it says about arsenic.
Caleb: Got it!
The EPA allows 10 parts per billion,
or ppb, of arsenic in drinking water.
Caleb: 1 ppb is a sugar cube in an Olympic-size swimming pool.
If more arsenic than 10 ppb is found in water,
special water treatment methods are used to take it out.
Gloria: What about for apple juice?
Caleb: Hold your horses, I'm looking it up.
[mutters under his breath] Spotty Wi-Fi.
Caleb: Ah ha!
Another federal agency called the Food and Drug
Administration, or FDA, has been checking out
arsenic levels in food.
Gloria: What does it say?
Caleb: The FDA studied 94 samples of arsenic in apple
juice, with 95% of them having less than 10 ppb total arsenic.
All of the samples were below 10 ppb for inorganic arsenic,
the more toxic kind.
Gloria: So I'm good?
Caleb: Yeah, the FDA is pretty confident that apple juice is
safe for kids and adults.
I wonder what it says about rice.
Grace: Arsenic levels in rice have stayed the same over
the past 20 years - low.
Caleb: Meaning?
Grace: You don't need to change how you eat rice.
Caleb: Whew!
You know what that means- I'm chowing down!
Gloria: It's still good to eat different grains.
Caleb: [in a matter-of-factly] You don't know my family...
Caleb: Hey mom, what's for breakfast?
Caleb's Mom: Rice.
Caleb: What's for lunch?
Caleb's Mom: Rice.
Caleb: What's for dinner?
Caleb's Mom: Something different!
Rice and beans.
Gloria: [laughs] Sounds like your mom.
Gloria: I'm glad we figured that out;
I love apple juice.
Thanks for looking out for us, Grace, but relax.
Grace: [Defensive] I was just wondering!
I'd seen this article on the Internet-
Caleb: Yeah, but you can't believe
everything you read online.
Gloria: The sites we looked at were good,
especially the Environmental Health Student Portal.
Caleb: Can it help with last night's homework,
I still haven't done it.
Grace: Do it before lunch ends!
Caleb: Hold up, lemme finish my rice real quick.