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Turning Off Cancer
AMERICANS DREAD CANCER more than any other disease. Slowly and pain-
fully being consumed by cancer for months, even years, before passing
away is a terrifying prospect. This is why cancer is perhaps the most
feared of the major diseases.
So when the media reports a newly found chemical carcinogen, the
public takes notice and reacts qUickly. Some carcinogens cause outright
panic. Such was the case a few years ago with Alar, a chemical that was
routinely sprayed on apples as a growth regulator. Shortly after a report
from the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) titled "Intoler-
able Risk: Pesticides in Our Children's Food,"l the television program
60 Minutes aired a segment on Alar. In February 1989 a representative
of NRDC said on CBS's 60 Minutes that the apple industry chemical was
"the most potent carcinogen in the food supply. "2,3
The public reaction was swift. One woman called state police to
chase down a school bus to confiscate her child's apple.^4 School systems
across the country, in New York, Los Angeles, Atlanta and Chicago,
among others, stopped serving apples and apple products. According to
John Rice, former chairman of the U.S. Apple Association, the apple in-
dustry took an economic walloping, lOSing over $250 million.s Finally,
in response to the public outcry, the production and use of Alar came to
a halt in June of 1989.^3
The Alar story is not uncommon. Over the past several decades, sev-
eral chemicals have been identified in the popular press as cancer-caus-
ing agents. You may have heard of some:
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