Document 5Dy6K88xkOzgKz0mjyGgKEYbJ

A Clean Bill of Health for Apples By WALLACE D. MORRIS Reprinted from HYGEIA. The Health Magazine, December 1941 Copyright, 1941, by American Medical Association A Clean Bill t -V WALLACE D. MORRIS of Health for Apples Like most rumors, the one concerning the use of lead arsenate as an insecticide has many more lives than the proverbial cat. Here are the results of a Public Health Service study of the effects of this chemical on the health of both the apple orchardist and the consumer HE CODLING MOTH started it. This pest, section were that lead arsenate has been used Tif permitted to mature, eventually becomes a worm and eats its way into apples, ren there as a spray material for more than a quarter of a century, as much as 7,000,006 dering them unfit for human consumption. pounds of it being used for this purpose in a Nearly half a century ago it was discovered single year; more spray applications are given that if apple trees were sprayed with lead there each season than in most other apple arsenate before and during the growing season growing districts; since many of the apples of the fruit, the moth was killed before it consumed locally were not commercially could do any damage. The apple growers washed, there were opportunities for studying have utilized this protective method almost consumers who, over a considerable period of exclusively ever since, else the apple would time, had eaten lead arsenate residues in possibly have vanished from the American excess of the amount permitted by the United scene. With the lead arsenate spray out of the States Food and Drug Administration; the picture, the moth would have had no compe orehardists there are concentrated in a rela tition. tively small area, making it possible for sub Then came the charge that people who jects to come into a centrally located clinic: ale apples were being poisoned by spray and, finally, the varieties of apples produced in residues. The belief persisted, to plague the the Wenatchee region are usually eaten raw. apple-growing industry to the point where the rather than cooked. consumption of apples fell off markedly, Although apples are grown in nearly every untold hundreds of farmers saw their apple state in the Union, Washington produces one orchards become financial losses, and the fourth of the national total. The Wenatchec- apple business as a whole approached peril Okanogan district in Washington contains only ously near the point of bankruptcy. 1.5 per cent of the total apple acreage in the 'flic growers, packers, marketers and other United States, but produces from 20 to 25 pc: workers in the apple industry fought back. cent of all commercial apples. During the Time alter time, when apples were suspected years 1934-1938, the average per capita con of causing illness or death because of lead sumption of apples in the United States was arsenate residue, they proved that some other 56.8 pounds, with oranges, their nearest com factor was the cause of the trouble. petitor, running 36.6 pounds. Finally help was sought of Congress, and on The state of Washington is highly apple- .Inly 1, 1937, that body directed the United conscious, to the extent that it has a unit of the Stales Public Health Service - to make an state government, the Washington Stale Apple investigation "to determine the possibly harm Commission, whose job it is to aid the growers ful effects on human beings of spray insecti in making Washington apples the finest that its cides on fruits and vegetables." The results rich volcanic ash soil can produce, and to tell of the Service's findings as regards sprayed the world about those apples. Clifford E. apples have recently been released under the Chase, secretary-manager of the commission, title, "A Study of the Effect of Lead Arsenate makes his home--as might be expected--in Exposure on Orehardists and Consumers of Wenatchee, when he is not off across the coun Sprayed Fruit," being Public Health Bulletin try to Washington, Miami, Chicago, New York Number 267. or somewhere else in the interest of the famed The region around Wenatchee, Wash., was fruit of his state. In or out of Wenatchee, Mr. selected as the place to find the answer to the Chase has taken a leading part in the campaign question: "What lias been the possible effect against the lead arsenate bogey. on human beings of exposure to lead arsen The packers of apples make every effort to ate?" The reasons for picking the Wenatchee cleanse the crop that is packed for commercial XE 00084 3 sale. First the apples are washed in a sodium silica wash, at a temperature of 110 degrees, to remove any spray residue. Next they are rinsed, and then are sent into a second hot hath, a one per cent hydrochloric acid solu tion, for the removal of any additional residue or dirt, after which they are rinsed again. They arc then dried, sorted for size, defective fruit removed, the good apples weighed and packed, then stored in chilly storage rooms or refrigerator cars. It is usually less than an hour from the time the apples arrive at the packing plant until they go into chilly storage, and they are kept there until they go on sale in the slore where you buy them. The Public Health Service's bulletin slates that the investigation comprised "a study extending over three years of the possible injury to health of people exposed to lead arsenate, whether by ingestion on fruit (con sumers), by inhalation of spray mist or dust (orehardists), or by other forms of exposure." The study also "included both an intensive field study of large groups of men, women and children, as well as toxicologic laboratory investigations of the effect of lead arsenate on man and animals, and of similarly-related problems. The possibility that lead arsenate could have been a factor, directly or indirectly, in other diseases was studied." This phase of the investigation extended over 14 months, and included health examina tions of 488 adult male and 54 adult female orehardists; 95 men and 145 women classified as consumers, who had no seasonal exposure to lead arsenate or any similar compound; 158 men and 171 women, former orehardists or seasonal workers in apple-packing sheds; 99 boys and girls under 15 years of age; and a group of 20 men and women whose records were set aside for special consideration because of previous industrial exposure to lead, or because their exposure at the time of the investigation did not fit into any of the categories mentioned. The total number of persons examined was 1,231. The youngest was a 19 month old girl, the oldest an 86 year old woman. Each person in the various classifications was questioned as to how main7 apples he or siie ate annually (based on recollection), and whether they were washed, unwashed, or both. Some said they ate no apples, while others said lliex7 ate more than 2,000 a year. Again, some ale commercially washed apples almost exclu sively, some both washed and unwashed Kf 00OS49T apples, and some unwashed ones almost exclusively. For example, in the consumer classification it ran: Washed--men, 255 apples, annually; women, 263; both washed and unwashed-- men, 431; women, 400; unwashed--men, 345; women, 371. Men and women orehardists ate more unwashed apples than washed ones. In the medical procedure followed in examining the patients--"patients" because many of those examined were in various stages of health--particular attention was paid to regions and systems important in the diag nosis of lead and arsenic intoxication. Each subject was given a fluoroscopic chest exami nation, and about a tenth of the total number of subjects were x-rayed, this being done on all cases where fluoroscopy indicated a patho logic manifestation. Specimens of blood and urine were taken from each subject at each examination, and fecal specimens were col lected from the first 48 men examined, for clinical laboratory tests and chemical analysis. The subjects were examined, over a period of a year devoted to this phase of the survey, from' one to four times each, to note anv changes in their health or in symptoms of which they might have complained. Tests revealed that blood lead concentration was higher in orehardists than in nonorehardists, but the report on a 14 year old boy who had tended a mixing lank during the season of the survey was: "Clinical findings were negative, and results of clinical laboratory tests fell well within the range of normal variation." Again, "It thus appears that these elevations in blood lead, urinary lead, and urinary arsenic content correspond to elevated levels of lead arsenate intake, peculiar to the Wenatchee dis trict and to fruit-growing regions in which there are similar opportunities for exposure. There was no indication at the time of exami nation of any adverse effects on the health of Wenatchee children." The children examined were nearly all in the consumer class--those who ate apples, but had nothing to do with their growing or packing. Of the men apple growers the report says: "This population of orehardists shows no ten dency for the symptoms and signs of lead and arsenic intoxication to occur in combination." Speaking of subjects found in need of medi cal attention, the report states: "Physicians will recognize that more data, special labora tory tests, and particularly the opportunity to 4 observe the patient over longer periods oi time, would be needed to establish definite diagnoses of many of the diseases (listed in tables in the report). Enough evidence, how ever, was usually available to establish or rule out lead or arsenic injury." Another significant paragraph: "It is known that lead can be stored in the body, following periods of heavy intake, and that it is elimi nated, under normal circumstances, with the passage of time. These data indicate that it does not require much time for a population of former orchardists to so deplete the stores of lead and arsenic within their bodies that their urinary lead, blood lead and urinary arsenic values fall to the levels of men who never had an unusual exposure to these metals." The report runs the gamut of ills to which humanity is heir. Of the Wenatchceans' heart disease incidence it says: "No more frequently than in the general population." Of blood pressure: "The average blood pressure of the persons in this study arc no higher by age groups, and in most cases are lower, than those of industrial workers studied by the Public Health Service." Of skin dis orders: "The paucity of all forms of derma titis seems to indicate that dermatitis is not a significant toxic manifestation of lead arse nate." Of eye irritation: "Close study of the orchardists failed to establish lead arsenate as the cause of the difference." Of nervous disorders: "Most of the organic nervous dis orders observed represented either chronic dis ease slates or the residuals of acute nervous illnesses," adding, a few words later on: "This is about the same degree of prevalence ob served . . . among' the rural white inhabitants of Cattaraugus County, N. Y." One would assume the latter to be pretty healthy. Kidney diseases: "None of these diseases was unusu ally prevalent." Of patients found to be suffer ing from tuberculosis: "Nothing was noted during this period of observation to lead one to suspect that their lead arsenate exposure was having an adverse effect on their pul monary disease." On the whole, the findings of the survey are contained in these words, given in the summary of the report: "Insofar as comparative data for-other populations are available, no evidence._ivas. found that any of these forms of ill health was more prevalent in this region than elsewhere, or that any cases of chronic diseases had been caused or influenced by lead arsenate exposure." [Non:: Apples, with their health-giving thia mins A, II, C and (l; their valuable minerals, iron, calcium and jtlutsphortis, and their pure appeal to the palate, are one of .Xalnrc's finest gifts to mankind. 1\V must do everything possible to insure their continued availability. No doubt there have been instances of persons who responded unfavorably even to small amouids of the toxic substances used as sprays. But proper handling and washing of the fruit reduces this hazard to infinitesimal propor tions, as shown by the report of the United States Public Health Service. Meanwhile research is continuing for sprays free, from the inherent dangers of lead and arsenic. Kn.) Printed and Published in the United States of America K E' 0008498 *.