What’s inside your sack of rice? Environment watch dog Eco Waste Management says there might be lead, mercury, chromium and aresenic in some rice sack labels being sold all over the metropolis.
The group used a portable X-Ray Fluorescence analyzer to trace the presence of lead in 59 of the 125 samples. The levels were at 124 parts per million (ppm) to 2,605 ppm which is clearly over the US limit of 90 ppm for lead in paint and surface coatings. The sacks that tested positive for lead also had traces of mercury, arsenic and chromium.
Eco Waste Management had tested 125 empty rice sacks from different rice dealers in 10 cities last April and immediately forwarded results of their random testing to Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala as well as Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) Director Kenneth Hartigan-Go, the Philippine Star reported.
