> Alternately, is there some way of inserting or selecting data from the db which doesn't require the use of apostrophes for non-numeric fields?
Uhmm just prepare all your statements and this shouldn't be an issue.
.. which is a good idea anyway when you're dealing with data which cannot easily be verified as 'safe' (such as text data) -- it's a great way to prevent all SQL injections, even when you're not expecting quotes.