State Health Chief Assails Ban on Apples

State Health Services Director Kenneth W. Kizer on Tuesday denounced school districts for “precipitously” barring apples from lunch menus and sending “the wrong message” to children that fruits and vegetables are unsafe to eat, but not before 23 of 28 Orange County school districts joined the ban.

Kizer munched calmly on a Red Delicious apple to emphasize his point that “apples are good for you.” He accused school district officials of succumbing to a “little bit of hysteria” and creating a “toxic bogyman” by banning the fruit due to concerns over children ingesting daminozide, a chemical sometimes used in growing apples.

His remarks at an afternoon press conference in Los Angeles came even as the apple boycott spread through California and the rest of the nation, with Chicago and a major school district in the Washington metropolitan area following the lead of New York and Los Angeles school officials in banning the fruit pending further study.

An informal survey Tuesday found that an overwhelming number of Orange County and Los Angeles County school districts had joined the apple boycott. Orange County school officials said they would rather play it safe by also declaring apples a forbidden fruit.

“I even pulled Hostess pies (that contain apple filling),” said Pat Renzi, who prepares menus for eight schools in the Huntington Beach City School District.

Kizer said the health risks from eating apples treated with the chemical, known under the trade name Alar, are “exceedingly low” and are based “on a very large consumption over a lifetime.”

Californians, he said, face a greater risk of cancer if they eschew fruits and vegetables.

“We know, incontrovertibly, that the dangers of not eating fruits and vegetables far outweigh any health danger from eating fruits and vegetables with trace levels of this pesticide on it.

“When we send a message to kids that fruits and vegetables are unsafe, what are they going to eat?” he asked. “Twinkies . . . and other junk” that are low in fiber, high in fat, sugar and salt, he said. Such a diet, he said, has been shown to cause cancer, heart disease, hypertension and other chronic ailments.

Kizer called the school apple boycott “an unforeseen outcome” of a recent study by the Natural Resources Defense Council that concluded that children who consume tainted apples are particularly at risk of cancer.

Al Meyerhoff, a council spokesman, acknowledged that the group did not specifically call for schools to ban apples but said the boycott is “an appropriate response until there is some assurance given that the carcinogen is out of the food supply.”

The charge has prompted federal health officials to closely examine studies they have conducted during the last 8 years which, they say, have shown harmless and declining amounts of Alar in apples and apple products. It is estimated that only about 5% of the nation’s apple crop--all outside California--now is treated with Alar. Major supermarket chains have taken steps to assure customers that their apples are free of Alar.

The EPA, which has been studying Alar’s health effects for years, has contended that the chemical does not warrant an immediate ban. But EPA officials will decide during the next 18 months whether the chemical should be banned.

State education officials have asked Kizer’s office to test for Alar in apple products distributed to schoolchildren in this state. Nine samples of juice, apple slices and applesauce have been collected for testing from two warehouses, one in Sacramento and the other in Pomona.

Kizer said he believes that the tests will show trace amounts of the chemical in apples. But he said that, even so, he does not think that the amounts will be high enough to warrant elimination of apples from school diets.

In the meantime, he said, the apple ban by school officials has been “very precipitous and was not done based on any thoughtful analysis of the risk posed by that versus the risk posed by swimming in swimming pools or drinking public water.”

Action Defended

In reaction to Kizer’s criticism, Rosalie Mayberry, food services director of the Irvine Unified School District, said districts are opting to err on the side of caution.

“You read very conflicting statements, but we don’t want to take chances with the kids. . . . The more you read the more confused you get,” she said.

“We’re not in a position to make a judgment. They (the experts) can have a long debate on this, and God only knows who would win.”

Some Orange County parents also said they preferred that their children’s schools play it safe.

“I don’t think you can overreact when there’s even small percent chance that children can get cancer from eating something,” said Stacie Noel, whose 7-year-old son attends Palmyra Elementary School in the Orange Unified School District. “They used to didn’t think that cigarettes caused cancer either.”

The absence of a clear-cut position by state and federal education agencies on the apple question left many food service managers to make their own decisions.

In Orange County, students at several Fullerton Elementary School Districts were expecting to see apples on their lunch trays Tuesday, but at the last minute, foods supervisor Diane Sherpe decided to pull them.

Sherpe said she had a written commitment from her produce supplier ensuring that the chemical had not been used on them. But just before the lunch break, she said, she “just decided to be cautious.” The 800 apples that were to be served Tuesday will be going back to the produce vendor, she said.

Most of the school districts said they would be happy to put the products back on the menus if there is definitive information that they are safe, but until then, caution will reign.

“At this point we don’t want to see the word apple on our menus,” said Dolly Veneman, a clerical worker in the food services division of the Los Alamitos Unified School District, which removed apples from its menus.

Some school officials said the apple scare illustrates the extent to which the smaller school districts take their cue from the larger districts.

“A lot of us are having to respond to that,” said William Caldwell, food services director at the Capistrano Unified School District. “It’s just that those are such big school districts that we have to watch what they do carefully.”

After conducting his own inquiry of government agencies and produce vendors, Caldwell decided not to ban apples at his district.

Three other districts in Orange County have no ban on apples: Garden Grove Unified School District, Saddleback Valley Unified School District and Magnolia School District. Representatives of each said they checked with their suppliers, who offered assurances that the apples were Alar-free.

As of Tuesday, Lowell Joint School District had made no decision on a ban, a spokesman said.

Times staff writer Kimberly Jackson contributed to this story from Orange County.