Alar is the trade name for the chemical compound daminozide, manufactured by the Uniroyal Chemical Company. The compound has been used since 1968 to keep apples from falling off trees before they are ripe and to keep them red and firm during storage. As late as the early 1980s, up to 40% of all red apples produced in the United States were treated with Alar.

In 1985, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) found that UDMH (N,N-dimethylhydrazine), a compound produced during the breakdown of daminozide, was a carcinogen. UDMH was routinely produced during the processing of apples, as in the production of apple juice and apple sauce, and the EPA suggested a ban on the use of Alar by apple growers. An outside review of the EPA studies, however, suggested that they were flawed, and the ban was not instituted. Instead, the agency recommended that Uniroyal conduct further studies on possible...