Supermarkets Halt Sale of Cranberries

Clerk Tom Wainwright removes cans of cranberry from the shelves in an H. C. Bohack supermarket in Jackson Heights, Queens, Nov. 10th. The Bohack Co., which operates 185 food stores in Brooklyn and Long Island, halted the sale of all fresh cranberries and cranberry sauce in the wake of government claims that part of the 1959 crop had been contaminated with a cancer-producing chemical. With only 16 more days to go until Thanksgiving, many major food store chains across the country have withdrawn fresh and canned cranberries from sale. More than 72 million cans of cranberry sauce were in grocery stores when Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare Arthur S. Flemming issued his warning in Washington Nov. 9th. He said some cranberries grown in the Northwest were coated with a residue of the weed killer Aminotriazole, which can cause cancer in rats.