Arsenic and heavy metals in paddy soil and polished rice contaminated by mining activities in Korea

Rice plays an essential role in Asian sustenance. Moreover, it can take up toxic elements through its roots from contaminated soils, and even its leaves and grain can absorb the elements deposited on the soil surface. Hence in 2010, forty soil and polished rice samples were collected from four representative abandoned metal mining areas in Korea and analyzed for As and heavy metals, including Cd, Cu, Pb and Zn, by atomic absorption spectrometry...