Cadmium-tainted rice found in Guangzhou

Half of the rice being sold in markets in the southern city of Guangzhou was contaminated with the carcinogenic metal cadmium, according to government tests, The Wall Street Journal reported. The Guangzhou Food and Drug Administration tested 18 samples of rice in the city, nearly half of which contained excessive levels of cadmium. The news was met with anger online. “First water, then the air we breathe, and now the earth. How can people still survive?” commented one person on Sina Weibo, a service similar to Twitter. Several food safety scandals have rocked China this year, including record pollution in Beijing and dead pigs in Shanghai’s water supply.