Government to review data on saccharin
By Sid Perkins
UPI Science News
RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C., July 18 (UPI) -- The National Toxicology
Program plans to review data that could remove saccharin from the U.S.
government's official list of cancer-causing agents.
Health officials with the program in Research Triangle Park, N.C.,
announced the review today. Reviewers also plan to study 13 other
substances or products to see if they should be added to the list. These
candidates include smokeless tobacco, dioxin and sulfuric acid
mist.
A senior scientist with the program, Dr. Charles W. Jameson, says
saccharin has never been categorized as a "known" carcinogen. It has,
however, been listed as a "likely" carcinogen since 1981.
A Canadian study in rats led the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to
restrict use of the popular sweetener in 1977, but Congress stepped in to
permit continued sales if products displayed a warning label.
In the Canadian study, rats fed large amounts of saccharin were more
likely to develop bladder cancer. Later studies in humans showed no link
to the disease.
Jameson says the government will publish results of the review late this
year. If reviewers take saccharin off the list of cancer-causing agents,
Congress may drop the requirement for warning labels on products
containing the substance.
Saccharin, 200 to 500 times sweeter than cane sugar, became the first
artificial sweetener when it was discovered in 1879. Recently, saccharin
has had strong competition from aspartame and other new synthetic
sweeteners.
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