New Delhi, April 17 -- Warmer temperatures and higher carbon dioxide levels could increase arsenic concentrations in rice, according to a new study published in Lancet Planetary Health on April 16, 2025.

When CO levels and temperatures rise beyond 2 C, they work together to raise inorganic arsenic levels in rice grains. This effect may stem from shifts in soil chemistry that promote arsenic absorption. The study warns that eating rice under these conditions could heighten exposure to inorganic arsenic, raising lifetime cancer and health risks across multiple Asian nations by 2050.

In one of the first field-based studies of its kind, researchers from China and the US, led by Dongming Wang of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, discovered t...