Bananas to Be Monitored for Pesticide Level

Banana importers agreed to undertake an unprecedented monitoring program last week after unusually high pesticide residues in some tested fruit prompted California heath officials to consider issuing a health advisory for small children, state and federal officials said Wednesday.

In addition to pledging to monitor every shipment of bananas entering the United States over the next 90 days, the industry will discontinue using the pesticide aldicarb on bananas. The insecticide is “systemic” and enters the fruit through the root.

Although no health problems were reported from eating bananas, the monitoring program was initiated as a precautionary measure, industry officials said. “We looked at our data and found no evidence of any problem,” said Patrick Raeher, an attorney for the International Banana Council, which represents growers and importers for the United States.

“However, in order to assure all health officials and the public, we agreed to institute the most comprehensive and thorough testing program ever initiated in any segment of the food industry.”

The decision to launch such an extensive monitoring program was reached during a flurry of conference calls last week with state health departments around the country, federal environmental and food agencies and the banana industry.

Most of the participants wanted to avoid a recurrence of the 1989 panic over Alar, a growth enhancer previously used on apples that environmentalists said could cause long-term health damage to children. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency officials attributed the uproar in part to their failure to consult with state health authorities before releasing statements about the chemical.

“You would have to be foolish if you didn’t think about something like that,” said Robert Moore, president of the International Banana Assn. and a participant in some of the discussions.

The EPA initiated the conference calls after results of tests conducted on some bananas indicated excessive levels of aldicarb. In 1985, the acutely toxic insecticide caused about 1,000 poisonings in California after it was illegally applied to watermelons.

“Following on Alar, we did start the process of going to the states before going to the public,” said Linda Fisher, assistant administrator of pesticides and toxic substances for the EPA. “Our goal was to be sure that the federal and state government looked at the same data and felt the same way about it, so when we talked to the public, we would be speaking consistently.”

Anna Fan, a California toxicologist who participated in the conference calls, said the state was particularly concerned about children because of their small body weight and propensity to eat fruit.

But rather than immediately issue a health warning, she said, California decided to try to reach a consensus with other government agencies to avoid “coming out with different advisories and having people wonder which advice to follow.”

California health officials, based on their experience with the watermelon poisonings, believe aldicarb is toxic at doses considered safe by other government agencies, Fan said.

Symptoms during the watermelon poisonings ranged from gastrointestinal problems, such as diarrhea and vomiting, to convulsions. The chemical has no long-term, effects, officials say.

Despite the lack of reported poisonings from bananas, California officials were not completely assured.

“Our concern is that sometimes when people eat bananas and get diarrhea, they do not realize it was caused by the bananas,” Fan said. “And for kids, sometimes when treating kids, parents give them bananas.”

She said the risk to consumers of eating contaminated bananas was “real minimal,” and added that she believes the steps taken by the banana industry have removed any public health threat.

State health officials took notes in preparation of issuing a possible health advisory, but no draft statement was ever written, Fan said.

“The credit should go to Dr. Richard Jackson, a pediatrician (and chief of the state’s Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment Branch),” she said. “He is very concerned about kids, and I think he did get the EPA and the manufacturer to do more by emphasizing his concern.”

Jackson could not be reached for comment.

The EPA’s Fisher said she did not try to dissuade California from issuing the advisory but said it would be unnecessary “given the small chance of consumers getting a hot banana.” She said the industry “eased the mind of California” by pledging the “unprecedented” and “dramatic” monitoring program and promising not to ship bananas from any field treated with the pesticide in the last 30 days.

In 1987, a study by the pesticide’s manufacturer, Rhone-Poulenc Inc., found aldicarb at levels as high as double the legal limit in one of every 300 bananas tested, EPA officials said. As a result, the agency asked the manufacturer to do more residue testing on individual bananas.

Five fields recently were tested in Central and South America, according to EPA spokesman Albert Heier. In one of the fields, 25 of 50 bananas tested had excessive levels of aldicarb. One banana had 10 times the legally allowed residue, and two bananas from other fields had slightly elevated residues, he said.

Upon learning of the findings, Rhone-Poulenc voluntarily stopped the sale of aldicarb for use on bananas, and the banana industry began considering the monitoring program.

Raeher, the industry’s attorney, said none of the bananas from the test fields were sold to consumers. The intensified monitoring for residues began on Monday, and any banana found to contain even a trace of the pesticide will be destroyed, he said.

“There is no question that the public, as of Monday, is completely protected from this product,” he said.

Heir speculated that the higher residue levels in some bananas may have been caused by dry weather that prevented the pesticide from being diluted by rainwater but Raeher blamed them on misuse of the pesticide.

David Bunn, an environmental activist who specializes in pesticides, complained in an interview that there is no way banana companies can guarantee that no fruit with elevated levels of aldicarb reaches the market. He called for health warnings and a ban on aldicarb for all uses.

But Robert Howd, a toxicologist with the California Department of Health Services, said he would not hesitate to give the fruit to small children. In the remote chance that a youngster ate a banana with 10 times the legally allowed residue, the child could become nauseated or get diarrhea but would not experience convulsions, he said.

“I do not believe it would be life-threatening,” he said, adding that there has been no hint of excessive aldicarb in jars of mashed bananas for babies.

He noted, however, that a consumer recently called the state health department and reported eating 14 bananas a day as part of a special diet. “We recommended he might want to stop that for a couple of weeks,” Howd said.

BACKGROUND

Aldicarb, sold under the trade name Temik, is permitted for use on coffee, cotton, citrus, dry beans, grain sorghum, ornamentals, pecans, peanuts, feed alfalfa, sugar beets, soybeans, sugar cane, sweet potatoes and tobacco and has been used on bananas since 1977. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said there has never been a report of aldicarb poisoning from bananas, the most popular fruit sold in the United States. Aldicarb can cause acute poisoning, with symptoms including nausea, diarrhea and convulsions.