Word: saccharine
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...decision by the House of Representatives last Monday to impose an 18-month delay on the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) ban on saccharin stemmed largely from constituent pressure, Dr. J. Winston, acting director of the Office of Health Policy Information, said yesterday...
...probably right to prohibit the use of saccharin as a food additive, Winston said, but added that he does not oppose the House action...
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...
Moreover, since saccharin is contained not only in diet drinks but also in large numbers of foods and toothpastes, it is difficult for the individual to avoid ingestion of this additive without governmental intervention. The FDA's action on saccharin is therefore well advised as prudent preventive medicine. Its further decision to permit the sweetener to be sold as a nonprescription drug recognizes the fact that there may well be people for whom the benefits of taking the sweetener exceed its possible risks...