Word: saccharine
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...sharp conflict with the view of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Feedback, a newsletter published by the Harvard University Food Services, encourages students to use the artificial sweetener, saccharin. In a statement we believe to be unwarranted, the September issue of Feedback states that "saccharine, nitrites, and hundreds of other food additives are perfectly safe at the levels currently used in our foods." The publication and distribution of this document under the imprimatur of the University's Food Services raises serious questions. We shall comment here only on certain scientific and policy questions...
Carefully designed studies have raised questions about the safety of saccharin. While research has produced no direct evidence that saccharin causes in the doses to which humans are exposed, the data are not available to prove that it does not. If the uses of saccharin were associated with tangible benefits, as, for example, some suggest for diabetics, one might be willing to accept the risks that animal studies tell us might be involved. But many uses of saccharin are trivial and without tangible benefits. Why accept a risk unnecessarily in such circumstances...
...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...