Advocacy Group Seeks Ban on Use of Apple Pesticide

The Environmental Working Group (EWG) has requested that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) halt the use of a “post harvest growth regulator”—diphenylamine (DPA)—on apples “until a rigorous analysis (re-registration) by EPA of the chemical can prove that it poses a reasonable certainty of no harm to consumers.” EWG cites in support of its request a 2012 European Food Safety Authority finding that “it could not confirm the safety of [DPA] because producers had not provided information about DPA on European apples and pears,” the European Commission’s (EC’s) ban on the chemical’s use on pears and apples in June 2012, and the EC’s decision to reduce the allowable level of DPA on imports to 0.1 part per million. According to EWG, some 80 percent of domestic apples tested had measurable levels of the chemical on them, with the average level four times the European import limit. DPA is apparently applied after harvest to prevent “storage scald”—fruit skin browning, associated with long-term cold storage. See EWG Press Release, April 24, 2014.

Issue 521