U.S. Seeks Ban on Pesticide for Peanuts, Apples

The government, citing new cancer studies, moved Wednesday to ban daminozide, a pesticide used on peanuts and apples and other fruits.

The Environmental Protection Agency said the studies showed enough evidence of health risk to warrant the action. Daminozide is of special concern because it leaves residues in apple sauce, peanut butter, fruit juices and other processed foods consumed by children, who are particularly sensitive to pesticide poisoning.

Acting EPA Administrator John A. Moore said the data was not conclusive enough to justify action to immediately suspend use of the pesticide, which is sold by Uniroyal Chemical Co. Inc. under the trade name Alar. It is used on 4% to 5% of apples grown in the United States to promote uniform size, firmness and freshness.

Moore said the EPA would propose to cancel government approval of daminozide within the next three months but would allow continued use of the pesticide through July, 1990, when final study results should be available.

Moore said new animal studies showed “an inescapable and direct correlation” between exposure to daminozide and the development of life-threatening tumors in mice. But he said the EPA’s decision was based on interim analyses of animal testing and that rat studies had found no cancer-causing potential.

Environmentalists disagreed with his assessment. “You don’t wait until you have perfect knowledge when your risk estimates show there could be hundreds of cases of cancer while you are delaying action,” said Janet Hathaway, an attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council.