Study links climate change to rising arsenic levels in paddy rice, increasing health risks

Findings suggest a higher incidence of lung, bladder, and skin cancer, as well as cardiovascular disease and diabetes

Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health

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Climate change may significantly impact arsenic levels in paddy rice, a staple food for millions across Asia, reveals a new study from Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health. The research shows that increased temperatures above 2°C, coupled with rising carbon dioxide (CO2) levels, lead to higher concentrations of inorganic arsenic in rice, potentially raising lifetime health risks for populations in Asia by 2050. Until now, the combined effects of rising CO2 and temperatures on arsenic accumulation in rice have not been studied in detail. The research done in conjunction with colleagues at John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the Chinese Academy of Sciences is published in The Lancet Planetary Health.

“Our results suggest that this increase in arsenic levels could significantly elevate the incidence of heart disease, diabetes, and other non-cancer health effects,” said Lewis Ziska, PhD, Columbia Mailman School associate professor of Environmental Health Sciences. “As rice is a dietary staple in many parts of the world, these changes could lead to a substantial rise in the global burden of cancer, cardiovascular diseases, and other arsenic-related health issues.”

Ziska explained that the higher arsenic levels are likely due to climate-related changes in soil chemistry that favor arsenic that can more easily be absorbed into rice grain. 

“From a health perspective, the toxicological effects of chronic iAs exposure are well established; and include cancers of the lung, bladder, and skin, as well as ischemic heart disease, Emerging evidence also suggests that arsenic exposure may be linked to diabetes, adverse pregnancy outcomes, neurodevelopmental issues, and immune system effects.  In fact, “ingesting rice in regions like southern China and Southeast and South Asia is already a significant source of dietary arsenic and cancer risk,” said Ziska.

By measuring the effects of rising temperatures and CO2 on 28 rice strains over ten years in the field using FACE (Free-Air CO2 Enrichment) methodology, and combining advanced modeling techniques, the team estimated inorganic arsenic doses and health risks for seven Asian countries: Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Myanmar, the Philippines, and Vietnam.

Health risks were calculated for cancer and non-cancer outcomes. Estimates of rice availability in 2021 by country, as reported in Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) food balance sheets, were used as the starting point for estimating rice ingestion. The standard deviation of rice ingestion per kg bodyweight from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency data was used to create a normal distribution for each country.

The study's projections for 2050 suggest a sharp rise in lifetime cancer cases, particularly lung and bladder cancers. China is projected to see the highest number of cases, with an estimated 13.4 million cancers linked to rice-based arsenic exposure.

“Based on our findings, we believe there are several actions that could help reduce arsenic exposure in the future,” Ziska noted. “These include efforts in plant breeding to minimize arsenic uptake, improved soil management in rice paddies, and better processing practices. Such measures, along with public health initiatives focused on consumer education and exposure monitoring, could play a critical role in mitigating the health impacts of climate change on rice consumption.”

“Our study underscores the urgent need for action to reduce arsenic exposure in rice, especially as climate change continues to affect global food security,” says Ziska.

Co-authors are Dongming Wang, Brent F. Kim, Keeve E. Nachman, Andrea A. Chiger, Julie Herbstman, Irakli Loladze, Fang-Jie Zhao, Chuan Chen, Axiang Gao, Yongguan Zhu,  Fangbai Li, Ren Fang Shen, Xiaoyuan Yan, Jiabao Zhang,  Chuang Cai, Lian Song, Min Shen, Chuanqi Ma, XiongYang, Wei Zhou, Yujun Wang, Haoye Tang, Yu Jiang, Yanfeng Ding, Wuxing Liu, Jianqiang Sun, Wei Zhou, Ana Navas-Acien, Chunwu Zhu.

 Author affiliations and sources of funding can be found in the paper.

Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health

Founded in 1922, the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health pursues an agenda of research, education, and service to address the critical and complex public health issues affecting New Yorkers, the nation and the world. The Columbia Mailman School is the third largest recipient of NIH grants among schools of public health. Its nearly 300 multi-disciplinary faculty members work in more than 100 countries around the world, addressing such issues as preventing infectious and chronic diseases, environmental health, maternal and child health, health policy, climate change and health, and public health preparedness. It is a leader in public health education with more than 1,300 graduate students from 55 nations pursuing a variety of master’s and doctoral degree programs. The Columbia Mailman School is also home to numerous world-renowned research centers, including ICAP and the Center for Infection and Immunity. For more information, please visit www.mailman.columbia.edu.

 

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Journal

The Lancet Planetary Health

Article Title

Impact of climate change on arsenic concentrations in paddy rice and the associated dietary health risks in Asia: an experimental and modelling study

 

Blood pressure: New research shows a changing climate may jeopardise global blood supply

A new study published in The Lancet Planetary Health suggests a changing climate threatens the continuous availability of safe blood across the world.

Australian Red Cross Lifeblood

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Blood pressure: New research shows a changing climate may jeopardise global blood supply   

A new study published in The Lancet Planetary Health suggests a changing climate threatens the continuous availability of safe blood across the world.

Researchers at the University of the Sunshine Coast and Australian Red Cross Lifeblood say health issues, the spread of infectious disease and extreme weather exacerbated by climate change will impact the ability of people to donate, and at the same time may trigger a rise in the need for blood.

Lifeblood researcher and UniSC Adjunct Research Fellow Dr Elvina Viennet said this threatened the safety and supply of life-saving blood products crucial for surgeries, trauma care, chronic disease management – and saving lives in emergency situations.

“Warmer temperatures and natural disasters such as heatwaves, floods, cyclones and bushfires are expected to become more frequent and severe,” Dr Viennet said.

“As well as limiting the mobility of large numbers of people, these events disrupt the storage, safety, and transportation of blood which has a short shelf life.

“We experienced this recently with ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred in Australia, when an extreme weather event drastically reduced national blood supplies for the first time.”

Lead researcher, UniSC Associate Professor Helen Faddy said the study was the first to globally examine how a changing climate could affect each stage of the blood supply chain, based on a comprehensive literature review of international studies.

“While many studies have explored the broader health effects of climate change, we sought to fill gaps in understanding the full extent of the risks – from donor health and collection logistics to the processing, storage and distribution of products,” she said.

The finding suggest climate change may impact some infectious diseases that can be transmitted via blood and can prevent people from donating.

“For example, predictions of increased rainfall and warmer temperatures in certain regions including Australia, could intensify mosquito-borne diseases such as Dengue Fever, West Nile Virus and Malaria, and potentially see them spread to new areas,” Dr Faddy said.

“At the same time, shifts in disease prevalence and natural disaster frequency could increase the demand for blood transfusions due to conditions such as pregnancy complications, cardiovascular disease and sickle cell disease.

“We could also face greater difficulty in finding the right blood for patients. With rising sea levels increasing migration rates, it’s essential to have more donors from a variety of ethnic backgrounds, and to increase the number of people who give blood.”

Less obvious health conditions and heat-related illness could also impact donors, staff, and volunteers.

“We could see new diseases emerge, health issues such as blood pressure and hydration that are exacerbated by heat, as well as psychological distress and ‘climate anxiety’, impact donors,” she said.

The study emphasises the need to reduce reliance on traditional blood supply chains and have adaptable strategies that offer rapid responses to climate-related challenges.

The researchers recommend Governments and blood services can prepare with critical tools such as early warning systems, disease surveillance, flexible approaches to donor eligibility and blood transport in emergencies, hospital preparation, and expanding collection services so donations can be relocated quickly.

“Recent global innovations include cell salvage techniques during surgery, the use of drones to transport blood when other transit is disrupted, and walking blood banks, which collect donations at the site of crises,” Dr Faddy said.

“As our environment evolves, we need to reduce reliance on traditional blood supply chains and have adaptable strategies that offer rapid responses to climate-related challenges.”

d emergency blood type

Flooding due to climate change 

Mozzie sucking blood

Donated blood at Australian Red Cross Lifeblood

Credit

Australian Red Cross Lifeblood

Journal

The Lancet Planetary Health

Method of Research

Systematic review

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

Blood under pressure: how climate change threatens blood safety and supply chains

Article Publication Date

16-Apr-2025

 

Start of US hunting season linked to increased firearm incidents, including violent crimes and suicide

Efforts to promote firearm safety at start of hunting season might help curb both hunting and non-hunting related firearm incidents, say researchers

BMJ Group

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The start of deer hunting season in the US - when firearms and ammunition are more available in certain states - is associated with increases in both hunting and non-hunting related firearm incidents, including violent crime and suicide, finds a study published by The BMJ today.

While increases in hunting related incidents are to be expected at this time, increases in non-hunting related firearm incidents “indicate the potential general effect of greater firearm availability on different types of firearm incidents,” say the researchers.

The results suggest that efforts to promote firearm safety at the beginning of hunting season could help reduce hunting and non-hunting related firearm incidents.

Increased rates of gun ownership have been associated with increased rates of firearm injuries, homicide, and suicide in the US. However, direct (causal) links between availability of firearms in the community and firearm incidents are difficult to study.

To obtain a clearer picture, the researchers measured rates of different firearm incidents during the opening of deer hunting season in 10 US states with the most hunting activity - Alabama, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Wisconsin - when sales of firearms typically increase or guns are removed from secure storage areas.

Using the Gun Violence Archive (GVA), a publicly available database of gun violence incidents in the US, they compared the average weekly per capita rate of firearm incidents in a three week period around the opening of deer hunting season with the three week periods before and after the opening day (control periods) across these 10 states from 2016 to 2019, spanning 40 total state seasons.

Seasons typically began between late October and early December, with most occurring in early to mid November.

They defined nine firearm incident categories (hunting, suicide, involving alcohol or other substance, domestic violence, defensive use, home invasion or robbery, carry license related, child involved, and officer involved). 

Compared with control periods before and after the opening period, the start of the hunting season was associated with a 12% relative increase in the rate of firearm incidents overall (an absolute change from 1.34 to 1.50 incidents per 10 million population).

As expected, season opening was associated with a large (566%) increase in hunting incidents compared with control periods. 

However, there were also increases in non-hunting related incidents, including suicide (11%), incidents involving alcohol or other substances (88%), domestic violence (27%), defensive use (28%), home invasion or robbery (30%), and incidents related to firearm carry licenses (19%). 

There were no differences in incidents involving children or police officers.

The researchers acknowledge that these are observational findings, so no firm conclusions can be drawn about causality, and they can’t rule out the possibility that other unmeasured factors may have influenced their results.

Their analysis also relies on the assumption that the hunting season opener is not associated with other events that may increase availability of firearms across the states and years studied, and they note that results may not apply in states with other types of hunting seasons.

Nevertheless, they suggest that increased firearm availability around hunting season opening may lower barriers for firearms to be used in suicide attempts or against others, and might also be accompanied by increased interest in firearms and ammunition by non-hunters.

While further research is needed to establish precise possible causal pathways, they say “risk reduction efforts timed to coincide with hunting season onset might help curb hunting related firearm injuries and those related to violent crime and suicide.”

[Ends]

 

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Journal

The BMJ

DOI

10.1136/bmj-2024-082324 

Method of Research

Observational study

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

Firearm availability and firearm incidents: quasi-experimental analysis using start of US hunting seasons

Article Publication Date

16-Apr-2025

COI Statement

All authors have completed the ICMJE uniform disclosure form at www.icmje.org/disclosure-of-interest/ and declare: no support from any organisation for the submitted work; no financial relationships with any organisations that might have an interest in the submitted work in the previous 3 years; and no other relationships or activities that could appear to have influenced the submitted work. ABJ reports receiving (in the last 36 months) consulting fees unrelated to this work from Analysis Group. ABJ also reports receiving (in the last 36 months) income unrelated to this work from hosting the podcast Freakonomics, MD, from book rights to Doubleday Books, speaking fees from Harry Walker Agency and AAE, and authorship income from The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Los Angeles Times. CMW reports receiving (in the last 36 months) consulting fees unrelated to this work from Alosa Health, Analysis Group, Atheneum, Berkshire Hathaway Home Companies, Chronius, FVC Health, GLG, Guidepoint, NuvoAir, Ogilvy, Philips, Simbo, Substack, Tell Health, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal, and FVC Health, and income unrelated to this book from book rights to Doubleday Books and speaking fees from the Harry Walker Agency

 

Children face ‘lifelong psychological wounds’ from entrenched inequities made worse by pandemic, doctor warns

Taylor & Francis Group

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The COVID-19 pandemic deepened existing health disparities and thrust children into a mental health epidemic, altering the landscape of health and wellbeing for a generation.

This is the stark warning of Dr Jatinder Hayre in his critical analysis of ‘entrenched inequities’ in the UK, The Lost Generation of COVID-19.

He presents a breadth of research to set out how, after a prolonged period of cuts to UK public services, Britain’s struggle with COVID-19 has fundamentally reshaped its social, economic, and health landscape. Dr Hayre, who led the Independent SAGE report on COVID-19 and Health Inequality, outlines urgent policy shifts to redress the balance.

The author highlights the excessive impact on children and young people from disadvantaged backgrounds, in particular: “Surging anxiety, stunted social development, and heartbreaking loneliness have coalesced into a mental health epidemic that is likely to outlast the virus itself.

“Britain stands at a pivotal moment, teetering between a path of meaningful reform and a slide into deeper inequity. COVID-19 exposed and magnified the mental health vulnerabilities of our children. If unaddressed, these psychological wounds may define a generation: permanently blocking some children from realising their potential and cementing a landscape of enduring social inequality.”

While these disparities were not created by the pandemic, Dr Hayre explains how these issues were ‘thrust into sharper relief’ by the crisis. Dr Hayre explains how, after a decade of austerity, education provision was already under-funded with the most deprived areas facing the largest proportional losses.

So, he explains, when the pandemic arrived, ‘these existing fissures became chasms’; for example, children in lower income households lacking access to technology were unable to keep up with remote learning. Meanwhile, children in well-resourced families were able to adjust to remote learning, with private tutoring, parental oversight and dedicated study spaces.

Inequities in education have profound implications, as research unequivocally shows that adults with less schooling experience disproportionately higher rates of cardiovascular disease, obesity and mental health issues.

Besides the academic impact, school closures impacted children in other ways; children living in poverty no longer had access to free hot meals, while children from at-risk or violent households no longer had adult supervision and safeguarding.

Dy Hayre said: “For those already living in poverty, the combined effect of losing out on learning, school meals, and emotional support created a crisis of compounding vulnerabilities. Post-traumatic stress, heightened anxiety, and social isolation threated to derail development at a critical juncture, with long term implications for children’s longer term mental and physical health.”

Dr Hayre suggests a ‘hidden catastrophe’ of the pandemic is ‘the mental health crisis that has engulfed our youngest citizens’. He explains that mental health services were already stretched in 2019, with demand far outstripping supply, and the pandemic exacerbated this shortfall on multiple fronts.

Children, isolated from their peer groups and family, reported heightened rates of stress, depression, and suicidal ideation. Academic setbacks for those unable to afford laptops and tutors, thrust children into despair: “the mental anguish of being left out – of both education and social life – was sharp.”

Dr Hayre explains how children’s brains are susceptible to trauma, with prolonged stress rewiring emotional regulation, increasing the risk of lifetime anxiety and depression.

“For disadvantaged children, the mental health repercussions of repeated academic failure can solidify a cycle of poverty, poor health and reduced aspirations. This is how a mental health crisis transforms into a societal crisis, with ramifications for the very fabric of post-pandemic Britain,” he explains.

To address these disparities, Dr Hayre suggests urgent policy shifts to prioritise mental health, from education reform to welfare provision, with ring-fenced funding for child mental health services.  Besides the moral and social concerns of health inequity, the author points to the broader societal ramifications such as a shrinking workforce, economic stagnation and growing pressure on healthcare services.

Dr Hayre advocates for policy interventions and structural reforms anchored in equity and fairness, and warns: “If we fail to address the structural underpinnings of inequality, future crises will merely entrench them further. The question is not merely how to fix what is broken but how to imagine a society in which no group is systematically left behind.

“Failure to act decisively means condemning millions of children to carry the pandemics trauma well into adulthood, perpetuating cycles of poverty, ill health and despair.”

He argues for a system he calls ‘weighted universalism’, which amounts to universal access – with extra services weighted to the most disadvantaged areas, to front-load intervention where the need is higher.

For example, this includes free paediatric mental health services across the board, but with extra coverage in high poverty areas.

“By ensuring that every child is equipped, protected and empowered,” he explains, “we lay the cornerstone for a post pandemic Britain that not only recovers but thrives, forging a legacy of justice, progress, and unity for generations to come.”

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DOI

10.4324/9781003312529 

 

New research reveals socio-economic influences on how the body regulates eating

Durham University

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Published in the journal Food Quality and Preference, the research highlights how physiological signals, particularly those transmitted via the vagus nerve, interact with socio-economic factors to shape dietary behaviour. 

The study involved 96 students from diverse socio-economic backgrounds who participated in a chocolate tasting session.  

In a controlled laboratory setting, each participant was presented with a plate containing 70 milk chocolate pieces and invited to sample and rate them at their leisure.  

Researchers measured each student's heart rate variability (HRV) as a proxy for the activity of the vagus nerve – a part of the nervous system that regulates appetite and digestion. 

The study’s lead author, Professor Mario Weick of Durham University’s Department of Psychology, explained: “The findings suggest that while the vagus nerve plays a key role in transmitting signals between the gut and the brain, the extent to which these signals guide eating behaviour can vary with one’s socio-economic status.  

“Our research indicates that internal signals may be more closely aligned with eating behaviour in individuals from higher socio-economic backgrounds. 

“In contrast, those from lower socio-economic groups appear to show a weaker link between these physiological signals and their food consumption.” 

The research builds on longstanding theories regarding the impact of socio-economic factors on health and dietary habits.  

Traditionally, disparities in diet have been attributed to differences in food access and external factors.  

However, this study shifts the focus towards internal regulatory processes.  

The data revealed that participants from more advantaged backgrounds consumed more or less chocolate depending on their vagal tone, which can signal both hunger and satiety. 

Conversely, in individuals from less advantaged backgrounds, this physiological regulation was not as evident.  

Professor Milica Vasiljevic of Durham University, the study’s co-author added: “Our study does not support the idea that individuals from lower socio-economic groups eat more or are inherently more impulsive.  

“Rather, it highlights that the internal regulation of eating - how our bodies naturally signal when to eat and when to stop - may function differently depending on our socio-economic backgrounds.  

“This could have important implications for understanding broader health inequalities.” 

While the research focused specifically on chocolate consumption as a model for eating behaviour, the implications may extend to other types of food and dietary patterns.  

Future research is needed to explore whether similar patterns are observed across different populations and with other food categories. 

This work marks a significant step forward in disentangling the complex relationship between socio-economic status, physiological regulation, and dietary habits.  

By bringing attention to the role of internal bodily signals in shaping eating behaviour, the research offers new perspectives for developing public health strategies that address dietary inequalities and associated long-term health outcomes. 

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Journal

Food Quality and Preference

DOI

10.1016/j.foodqual.2025.105491 

Method of Research

Experimental study

Article Title

Socio-economic status modulates the link between vagal tone and chocolate consumption

Article Publication Date

17-Apr-2025