Pick Your Poison

AT ABOUT this time next year, your daily bowl of Frosted Flakes may be suffering from a healthy dose of radiation, and your apple pie may be irradiated as well. The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently proposed permitting companies to irradiate fruits, vegetables, and grains to kill insects. The plan, which is still up for public comment, would also raise the maximum permitted radiation dosage for the treatment of spices, which only last year were approved for the radiation therapy.

Of course, the government is not dragging Tony the Tiger into the nuclear age for nothing. The plan they say is the lesser of two evils. In the past, farmers have used the controversial Ethylene Dibromide (EDB) as a pesticide. But scientists have determined that EDB causes cancer, and so food growing companies have been scurrying to find replacements for the dangerous chemical. The leading chemical candidates for substitutes, namely methyl bromide and aluminum phosphide, are believed to be as harmful as EDB.

Against these frightening pesticides, irradiation of plants is seen as a promising alternative, according to reports by the Department of Health and Human Services. Irradiation may also be cleared as a method of prolonging shelf life in a wide range of foods.

Researchers insure us that we certainly won't be glowing if we eat irradiated foods, and the process itself does not make foods radioactive in any way. What is more, irradiation of foods may prove advantageous, particularly in fighting global hunger.

But scientists have been taking a more wary view of irradiation than government officials, and have begun to advance some interesting arguments against dragging the nuclear age into the kitchen.

*Irradiation could lead to the formation of unique radiolytic products, a group of chemicals which are vaguely understood and may be toxic. According to a 1980 FDA report, irradiated foods may contain enough of these chemicals to "warrent toxicological evaluation."

*Irradiation causes minor, but significant, nutritional losses in many foods. Vitamins A,C,E and some B vitamins are sensitive to irradiation effects.

*Although a number of studies indicate that laboratory animals suffer no side effects from ingesting irradiated foods, some experiments did reveal genetic mutations.

*The process also carries the risk of worker safety in transport and use of radioactive materials.

The current promotion of irradiation treatment is particularly troubling in light of contentions by some scientists that safer alternatives do exist. For example, diatomaceous earth used for years by some grain farmers is a non-toxic insecticide, with none of the side effects of irradiation.

It is reassuring that the government has finally reacted to concerns over EDB, but its proposed solution hardly appears to resolve the issue. The lesser of two evils just may not be good enough.