The Story
“Simple Cooking Methods Flush Arsenic out of Rice”
http://www.nature.com/news/simple-cooking-methods-flush-arsenic-out-of-rice-1.18034
by Emily Sohn
Nature, July 22, 2015
The Pitch
Dear Richard,
Are you still the person to pitch for news stories at Nature? I got a tip on an upcoming, embargoed study that found a way to remove more than half of the arsenic load in rice, using a simple cooking technique with a coffee percolator.
Rice feeds half the world’s population, but arsenic contamination has become a major concern, something I wrote about last year for Nature Outlook (http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v514/n7524_supp/full/514S62a.html). The new study explores a low-tech and inexpensive way to remove much of the toxic metal from a staple crop, which could potentially have a major impact on health outcomes in the developing world.
I’m attaching a proof copy of the paper if you want to see it. It will run in PLOS One, though Meharg, the study’s author, does not yet have a publication date.
Let me know if you have any interest. Thanks,
Emily
