Warning on Space Seeds Doesn’t Alarm Schools

School officials throughout San Diego County said Thursday they were surprised that NASA had not told them the fruit from space-exposed tomato seeds could be poisonous but said they did not plan for students to eat the tomatoes anyway.

None of the teachers and administrators contacted said they would discontinue the science project after hearing about an internal memo written by a NASA contractor. The memo warned that there is a remote possibility the space shuttle-borne seeds could produce poisonous tomatoes.

The project was designed for grades four and up, but the National Aeronautics and Space Administration also provided a package of 50 seeds to first-graders at Pomerado Elementary School in Poway. The seedlings are now about 4 weeks old and have no buds, said Leslie Fausset, assistant superintendent for the Poway Unified School District.

“Our staff knew the seeds could be mutated and would not be normal,” Fausset said. “We didn’t plant them to consume them.”

Fausset said the space agency’s failure to notify the district of possible poisonous fruit “certainly is a concern,” but said she could not comment further without more information.

Janet Posen, science resource teacher for 109 elementary schools in the San Diego Unified School District, said it was difficult to determine how many city schools had received seeds because the schools had to apply to the agency individually for the science project for fourth-, fifth- and sixth-graders.

“But we do have many teachers in our district participating,” she said.

Posen said she had not seen information from NASA warning against consuming the fruit. “I would not normally have children grow produce for consumption that had been experimental produce. You don’t know whether they have been altered or changed genetically. To me, eating them would be not advisable.”

Rather, students would be examining the fruit for size, to see how quickly they ripened and the number of seeds produced compared to plants grown from seeds stored for six years on Earth, she said.

Ed Ritter, coordinator for the 240-student science lab program at Encanto Elementary School, said his fourth-, fifth- and sixth-grade classes will plant the seeds Monday as part of a botany experiment.

“I’m not too surprised notice was not sent ahead of time because of the excitement of getting the seeds to the schools. But a notice should go out now (that) the schools do have them,” Ritter said.

“I’m very much for educating children about the space program. I’m very positive that NASA made an attempt to recover the seeds (from space). Growing the seeds and keeping track of the growth is of interest to students and everybody.”

The La Mesa-Spring Valley School District also is participating in the program, but an official there involved in the experiment was unavailable for comment.

* SPACE TOMATOES

One state university official recommends that elementary schools not cultivate the seeds retrieved by NASA. Page A3