Schools’ Action Widens the Apple Controversy : Decisions by L.A., N.Y. Districts to Stop Selling Fruit in Cafeterias Spark Disparate Reactions

The decision by the nation’s two largest school districts to stop serving apples and apple products to students has dramatically widened a years-old controversy over the chemical daminozide, used under the trade name Alar, to make apples redder and last longer.

Last week’s moves by the Los Angeles Unified School District and New York City schools--which together sell more than 18 million apples in cafeterias and vending machines each year--have sparked disparate reactions among parents, pediatricians and other school districts.

The actions have also further upset apple growers and importers who say they have been taking steps to put the controversy behind them and who view many of the recent disclosures about the chemical as inaccurate.

Signs Posted in Stores

At the same time, major California grocery retailers such as Vons, Lucky, Ralphs and Safeway have posted signs in their stores to reassure customers that they have ordered suppliers to certify that their apples are not treated with Alar. But most stores apparently have not yet acted to ensure that apple products such as juice and applesauce are free of the chemical.

Administrators from some school districts reached Sunday said they had been unaware of the controversy until they learned of the Los Angeles school district’s decision to remove apples and apple products from student cafeterias. But at least one district, Glendale Unified, said it had already taken steps to ensure that the apples and juice offered to its students were free of the chemical.

Meanwhile, pediatricians, besieged by calls from concerned parents, have offered conflicting advice. One doctor from Newhall advised clients to stop buying apples until more information becomes available, while another pediatrician familiar with pesticide hazards contended that there is no cause for alarm.

Some Los Angeles-area consumers say they will drastically change their buying habits by turning to specialty stores and cooperatives for “organic” apples grown without pesticides or other chemicals or by cutting back on their consumption of fruits and vegetables.

“Maybe it’s overreaction,” said Marcy Axness, a Los Angeles mother who buys only organic apples and apple juice for her 1 1/2-year-old son, Ian. “But I’d rather err on the side of caution.”

The range of reactions was an indication that the emotional issue of apple safety has raised far more questions than answers in recent years.

The controversy over Alar first erupted nearly four years ago when the Environmental Protection Agency initially recommended a ban on the chemical’s use on food but later backed down. The furor was reignited Feb. 28 when the nonprofit Natural Resources Defense Council in Washington issued a report charging that children, because of their lower body weight, were particularly at risk of contracting cancer from products treated with Alar.

Further publicity about the findings on CBS-TV’s “60 Minutes” news program and subsequent appearances by actress Meryl Streep on talk shows added more fuel, culminating in the school districts’ decisions to ban apples, which for centuries have been considered the epitome of healthful food.

The apple industry continued to maintain Sunday that the tarnishing of the apple’s image stems from faulty information.

Derl I. Derr, president of the International Apple Institute in McLean, Va., called the Los Angeles school district’s action “very inappropriate.” He noted that less than 5% of the U.S. crop was treated with Alar last year, down from 30% in 1985.

In an effort to counter growing concern over the chemical, the institute last week placed full-page ads in major newspapers quoting a health expert as saying “apples are as healthy as ever.”

Rick Eastes, general manager of David Oppenheimer-California, which imports fruit from Chile, contended that the Alar scare is “just totally out of hand.” He characterized much of the material being disseminated as “disinformation . . . reminiscent of witch hunts and charlatanism.”

Call for Balance

Frieda Caplan, chief executive of Frieda’s Finest, a Los Angeles-based marketer of specialty produce, noted that “there’s got to be a balance and an understanding of what the real risks are.”

“What (consumers) have to realize is that when the industry became aware of the Alar thing four years ago, most growers stopped using it,” she said. “We want to satisfy them and encourage sales of fresh fruits and vegetables, so we’ve been encouraging growers to grow as free of pesticides as possible.”

Washington is the nation’s leading producer of apples, followed by New York, Michigan, California, Pennsylvania, Virginia and North Carolina.

Clark Biggs, a spokesman for the California Farm Bureau Federation in Sacramento, said state records showed no use of Alar on apples grown in California last year. California’s 1988 crop has already been sold out, according to Dan Anderson, general manager of Kingsburg Apple Packers in the San Joaquin Valley.

Daminozide is made by Uniroyal Chemical Co., based in Middlebury, Conn., and a unit of Avery Inc., which sells it under the brand name Alar. The chemical is technically classified as a growth regulator rather than a pesticide because it is not used to kill insects.

Developed in 1969, it has proved effective in reducing orchard losses from premature dropping of apples and in producing crisper, more colorful apples with a longer storage life. Although it is not used on green apples such as Granny Smiths, Anderson noted that “apples in general have been blacklisted” because of the concern over Alar.

According to Uniroyal Chemical, sales of the chemical have dropped by more than half since 1985, when the first concerns were sounded.

Customer Reassurance

Major grocery chains--caught between growers and consumers--have sought to reassure customers that their apples are, and have been for some time, free of Alar residue. In 1986, Safeway was the first major chain to quit accepting Alar-treated apples. Companies such as Vons, Ralphs and Lucky have followed suit.

The Los Angeles school district, however, gets its apples from wholesalers in the city’s produce district and apple juice from a variety of dairies, according to Randy Altenberg, deputy director of food services for the Los Angeles school district. Most applesauce, he added, is donated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The district, he said, would suspend serving of apples and apple products until it conducts its own tests and receives word from the federal government.

Other Southland school districts were divided in their approaches.

“I’m going to be speaking with our food service director first thing this week,” said Arthur N. Pierce, superintendent of the 16,400-student Burbank Unified School District.

But in Glendale, where 22,000 students attend classes, district officials several days ago requested chemical analyses and were assured by suppliers that the apples and juice offered to Glendale students were free of daminozide, according to Victor J. Pallos, a spokesman for the Glendale Unified School District.

Still other school officials said Sunday that evidence presented thus far in the controversy has not convinced them that apples, treated or otherwise, are bad for students.

No Plans to Act

“Until we get something a little more conclusive, we’re not going to do anything,” said Dale A. Henson, director of food services for the 9,600-student Lancaster School District. “I don’t think the issue is quite the ball of fire here as it is in Los Angeles.”

In the wake of that publicity, some California pediatricians say they have been flooded with calls from concerned parents seeking reassurance and advice. Loraine Stern, a Newhall pediatrician, said she has advised clients to “just hold off on all apple products until we get more information.”

But Richard J. Jackson, a Berkeley pediatrician who is chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ committee on environmental hazards, said he sees no cause for immediate alarm. “At the present time, the committee concurs that risks of pesticides in the diet are remote, long-term and theoretical,” he said last week.

Meanwhile, the Lucky grocery chain said it is now trying to ensure that house-brand apple products such as juices and applesauce are also certified as being free of Alar residue.

“We have been . . . doing extensive work with producers of our private-label (apple) products” and are requiring that they ask suppliers of apples to certify that they have not been treated with the chemical, said Christopher M. McLain, vice president, secretary and general counsel of Lucky Stores. Once Lucky has received such guarantees, he said, it will post signs in stores to that effect.

As for national-brand goods, he said, “We have told the suppliers what we are planning on doing, but we are not insisting that they follow the same course of action.”

Contributing to this article were staff writers Bruce Keppel and David Freed, along with Kathleen Doheny.