The Oxford Dictionary of New Words: A popular guide to words in ...

1.9 Alar...
Daily Telegraph 18 Apr. 1986, p. 36
Alar noun (Environment)
A trade mark for daminozide, a growth-regulating chemical used
as a spray on fruit trees to enable the whole crop to be
harvested at once.
History and Usage: Alar has been manufactured under this brand
name since the mid sixties and is used by commercial growers to
regulate the growth of fruit (especially apples), so larger,
unblemished fruit which remains on the tree longer can be
produced. The chemical does not remain on the surface of the
fruit, but penetrates the flesh, so that it cannot be washed off
or removed by peeling. The results of research published in the
second half of the eighties showed that, when the apples were
subsequently processed (in order to make apple juice, for
instance), Alar could be converted into unsymmetrical
dimethylhydrazine (or UDMH), a potent carcinogen. This discovery
brought Alar unwelcome publicity during the late eighties:
mothers anxious to protect their children from harmful chemicals
in foods (among them some famous mothers such as film star Meryl
Streep in the US and comedian Pamela Stephenson in the UK) led a
campaign to have its use discontinued. Alar was voluntarily
withdrawn by its manufacturers, Uniroyal, from use on food crops
in the US and Australia in 1989; in the UK the Advisory
Committee on Pesticides declared it safe.
Some products which have been publicised as Alar-free by
retailers and manufacturers were still found to contain
Alar.
She Oct. 1989, p. 18
Most people are far more frightened of the threat of
cancer than of the flulike symptoms that they associate
with food poisoning. Fanning their anxieties are
frequent alerts: about dioxin in milk, aldicarb in
potatoes, Alar in apples.