Corn Harvest Threatened by Cancer-Causing Toxin By LARRY GREEN Sept. 30, 1988 12 AM PT

Times Staff Writer CHICAGO —

A cancer-causing toxin associated with droughts is infecting some newly harvested corn across the Midwest, raising the possibility of contamination of the nation’s most important grain crop and vital first link in the country’s food chain.

The poison, aflatoxin, is produced by a fungus found in soil.

Aflatoxin is produced by aspergillus flavus, a common fungus or mold found in topsoil. Corn becomes vulnerable in drought years when the dry--and this year the exceptionally hot--weather cracks the kernels allowing the mold to thrive. While the mold itself is relatively harmless, aflatoxin is “a known carcinogen that will produce liver cancer,” said Donald G. White, University of Illinois associate professor of plant pathology.