EPA to Phase Out Alar Use in Apples by June, 1991

WASHINGTON —  The Environmental Protection Agency announced Friday that it will phase down permissible levels of Alar in apple products over the next two years, with a ban on the pesticide taking effect in June, 1991.

The EPA said it wanted to discourage further use of the plant growth regulator by farmers, but that it did not want to move so quickly that crops treated with Alar earlier this year would have to be removed from the market.

Under the EPA’s proposed phase-out schedule, the current 20 parts per million federal limit on Alar residues in apples and processed apple products would be reduced to five parts per million on Nov. 30, 1989. The limit would be lowered to 1 part per million in November, 1990, and any detectable level would be illegal after May 31, 1991.

The agency said it set its schedule on the assumption that apples harvested this fall would be available for another year at most and that apple juice and sauce made from apples grown in 1989 would be out of the food system by the spring of 1991.

The EPA said it was not necessary to immediately seize Alar-treated food because studies showed that consumers faced no significant short-term health risk from the pesticide, which is used on apples and other fruit to enhance color, firmness and shelf life.

But the agency said it had new scientific data confirming its initial findings that Alar poses an unacceptably high risk of cancer if regularly consumed over a lifetime.

The EPA began a special review of Alar in 1984 due to cancer concerns, but the agency took no action until earlier this year when an environmental group released a study charging that children were at special risk from the pesticide.

EPA officials challenged the findings of the Natural Resources Defense Council study as overblown, but agreed that Alar posed unacceptable risks.

The agency said it also was revoking approval for use of Alar on cherries, nectarines, peaches, pears, peanuts, grapes, tomato transplants and ornamental plants.