Is Bisphenol A the Next Alar?

A debate is raging over bisphenol A, which promises to dwarf the 1989 Alar scare. For those who do not remember, Alar (daminozide) is a pesticide that was used on apples and cherries to enhance ripening. A Canadian researcher found that daminozide can degrade during thermal processing to yield a chemical (unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine), which is chemically similar to a potent carcinogen (symmetrical dimethylhydrazine).

The players in this affair included CBS TV’s 60 Minutes, Fenton Communicatio…