Overview
This study measured cadmium, lead, nickel, chromium and other metals by ICP-OES in three traditional rice beverages made by the Bodo community in Assam: an undistilled fermented rice beer, a version stored for 12 weeks, and a distilled rice spirit. Metal levels in the distilled spirit were much lower than in the undistilled beverages. Results are in mg/L.
Key numbers
- Distilled rice spirit (JG1, JG2): lead “0.067 ± 0.12” and “0.052 ± 0.11” mg/L; cadmium “0.001 ± 1.10” and “0.001 ± 0.08” mg/L (Table 1, p. 1222).
- Stored fermented beer (JF2): lead “0.250 ± 1.15” mg/L, the highest (Table 1).
- Nickel exceeded the cited 0.02 mg/L drinking-water value in all samples (0.046 to 0.102 mg/L, Table 1).
Methods (brief)
Twenty-five milliliters of each beverage were digested with nitric and sulfuric acids on a hot plate and analyzed in triplicate by ICP-OES. No detection limits, reference materials or recoveries are reported. Per-litre values are kept unconverted.
Evidence Fitness
Only six household samples from one district. Many printed standard deviations are larger than their means, which is not credible for triplicate readings, so those values carry flags; the text also gives some ranges in mg/mL against the table’s mg/L. The distilled rice spirit is a proxy for vodka (no vodka was measured), so that page is not linked.