Word: saccharin
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...course, public policy decisions are often made on the basis of information which is suggestive rather than conclusive. The FDA's proposed ban on saccharin is a case in point. The FDA acted in response to a Canadian study which demonstrated that male rats exposed to saccharin in utero and throughout their lives exhibited a 24 per cent increase in bladder tumors in comparison to controls. A smaller increase was observed in male rats exposed only following birth...
Critics of the Canadian study have pointed out that the experimental animals were exposed to doses of saccharin far in excess of human consumption levels. The relevance of animal studies to man has also been questioned. Several facts must be kept in mind when evaluating these criticisms...
...those that scored positive for mutagenicity were also found to induce tumors when studied in animals. In light of this high correlation between mutagenicity and carcinogenicity, test systems for mutagenicity are being used increasingly to identify potentially toxic substances early in product development. Recent reports do indicate that saccharin-containing products produce mutations in test systems...
Fourth, although studies of human populations to date have not provided evidence linking saccharin with bladder cancer, it must be rembered that heavy intake of this additive in diet drinks has only occurred in relatively recent years. In man, a latent period measured sometimes in years and sometimes in decades is often observed between exposure to a carcinogen and clinical evidence of cancer. In the case of cigarette smoking, its relation to lung cancer was established only after decades of exposure by human populations...
While one cannot extrapolate automatically from animal studies to man, the Canadian, findings on saccharin should lead a prudent person to avoid unnecessary consumption of this artificial sweetener. Although the magnitude of the risk entailed by exposure to saccharin will likely not be known for many years, it must be asked whether this is a risk worth taking. There are, of course, cases where the risks are outweighed by the potential benefits--for example, certain chemotherapeutic drugs are used to treat advanced cancer, even though they carry a risk of inducing cancer. However, artificial sweeteners and many other food additives...