Consumer Gullibility

It was twenty years ago this year that media hype and Hollywood style sensationalism resulted in one of the largest and false health scares in our nation. It focused on Alar, a plant growth regulator sprayed on apples. Alar had been approved after years of studies confirmed its safety. There were even studies conducted after the approval that concurred with the original findings. One researcher however differed in his findings, findings that were found to be greatly lacking in scientific basis.  But, as is typical the squeakiest wheel gets the grease, and the wheels of media attention were set in motion. Actress Meryl Streep decided she herself would be the spokesperson for this particular witch hunt; a good actress in her own right, but a toxicology expert she was not. Sadly, scientific fact was no match for Hollywood and Alar was removed from the market and the apple industry suffered a severe and crushing blow. Can such a fabricated health scare ever happen again? Hopefully not. We as consumers do need to be kept informed, but that information needs to come from reliable sources; sources that do not include Hollywood.