The maker of Alar, a chemical used on apples, has halted sales of the product for application to food crops.
Bowing to what it called a “fear campaign,” the Uniroyal Chemical Company said this month that it would cease production and recall all supplies of the chemical until a scientific-review panel organized by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency rules on its safety next year. Alar is used by some growers to promote crispness in apples.
Dozens of school districts pulled apples from their lunch menus after an environmental group in February issued a report linking Alar with an increased risk of cancer in children. (See Education Week, March 22, 1989.)
District of Columbia officials have dropped efforts to enact a temporary curfew law that would have prohibited youths under the age of 18 from being on the streets at night.
A federal district judge ruled last month that the emergency curfew law was unconstitutional. The judge did not specifically rule, however, on a second law that would have imposed the curfew for only 255 days.
A spokesman for Mayor Marion S. Barry Jr. said last week that city officials had concluded that the court’s opinion applied to the second proposal as well. (See Education Week, May 31, 1989.)
