Environmental Health Risk Assessment Carcinogen and Non-Carcinogen Analysis: Arsenic in Rice

Abstract

Rice is the staple food of most Indonesian people. The process of planting rice using pesticides can cause contamination, one of which is arsenic contamination. Arsenic is a heavy metal that can cause various health problems such as disorders of the nervous system, respiratory system, digestive system, cardiovascular and kidney. This study aims to assess the health risks of both carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic risks due to consumption of rice containing arsenic. This research uses environmental health risk analysis method. The sample in this study amounted to 9 samples of rice which were analyzed by the Inductively Coupled Plasma (ICP) method. The sample of respondents was 96 people who were taken by purposive sampling method. Through this study, it was found that the average concentration of arsenic was 0.01 mg/kg, the respondent's body weight was 45.74 kg, the frequency of exposure was 365 days, the intake rate of 200 grams and the duration of exposure adjusted for each respondent's exposure. The final result of the calculation of the carcinogenic analysis (ECR) was 1.02 X 10^-4 and the non-carcinogenic analysis (RQ) was 0.29. The results of these two analyzes indicate that the consumption of rice containing arsenic is still within safe limits. Continuous efforts should be made to keep arsenic concentrations within safe limits.