Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, April 14, 1990 TAG: 9004140217
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A4 EDITION: STATE
SOURCE: LESLIE TAYLOR STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
So when she read in her morning newspaper Friday that an internal memo written by a NASA contractor warned that shuttle-borne tomato seeds planted nationwide by science students as part of a space agency experiment were exposed to cosmic radiation that could produce poisonous tomatoes, she shrugged and refused to panic.
"We took steps in the beginning to ensure the children's safety," said Hurst, a science and learning disabilities teacher at Clearbrook Elementary School in Roanoke County. "There was a note enclosed with the seeds which said to treat this as a scientific experiment. In other words, do not eat these seeds. We have looked at it as an experiment and treated it as such."
Clearbrook students planted the 50 seeds on April 3. Hurst estimates a germination rate of about 25 percent so far.
"The plants are very healthy and look good," she said.
The memo, obtained by the Los Angeles Times, described the danger as "remote," and reported that the research director at the Park Seed Co., which supplied NASA with the seeds, "seemed to favor against" eating the tomatoes.
No such warning, however, was included in educational materials or press releases sent to 180,000 teachers participating in the experiment, a Los Angeles Times story reported Friday.
"That's not true," Hurst said. "A letter was included. It doesn't state it as a warning. It says to consider this a research project. That was warning enough for me."
Hurst said she couldn't say whether it was warning enough for the general population.
NASA officials have conceded there was an "infinitesimal" risk of toxic tomatoes, but they defended a decision not to warn teachers and students about consuming the experimental harvest. As part of a scientific experiment, the tomatoes should not be eaten anyway, they said.
Nearly all of Roanoke County's elementary and middle schools as well as others in area school systems are participating in the experiment, dubbed SEEDS, for Space Exposed Experiment Developed for Students.
The project placed 12.5 million tomato seeds into orbit on the Long Duration Exposure Facility, referred to as LDEF. The effort was designed to rouse interest in science and space by providing 4 million students with an opportunity to study the effects of long-term space exposure on living tissue.
Deanna Gordon, director of elementary education for Roanoke County schools, said one parent called her office Friday concerned about potential hazards.
"We have reiterated to teachers that we are not raising tomatoes to eat," Gordon said. "We certainly want to take every possibility to guard youngsters against eating anything poisonous."
In the meantime, NASA moved to assure parents their children wouldn't be harmed. "I think it's safe for children to raise the tomatoes," Alvin L. Young, director of the office of agricultural biotechnology of the Agriculture Department, said at a NASA news conference in Washington.
However, he emphasized that he hoped the children would not eat the fruits because the seeds should be replanted to carry out the experiment.
by CNB