Saccharin
The artificial sweetener saccharin is used in toothpastes to make them more palatable. For 20 years it has been dogged by suspicion that it causes cancer, was denied the scientific equivalent of parole when a board of independent experts recommended that it remain on the government's list of suspected carcinogens. The vote was close, 4-3, and the outcome a surprise. Most scientists had expected the panel to decide that saccharin, perhaps the most studied food additive ever, should become the first substance ever to be struck from the carcinogen roster.
"The closeness of the vote indicates the complexity of the issue, and the large body of scientific studies that can be looked at in different ways," said Michael Jacobson, executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, which had pressed for saccharin to remain on the list.
The toxicology program's own scientists, having reviewed 14 animal and more than 30 human studies involving saccharin, recently concluded that it was unfairly placed on the list, in 1981, and should be removed. Although saccharin in high doses has been shown to cause bladder cancer in rats, recent research has suggested that the rat studies are not applicable to humans, whose urinary functions are different. The expert panel was split over contradictions in those studies and was ultimately unable to settle the two-decade-old question of whether saccharin poses a health threat to people. In the end, some panel members said, they preferred to err on the side of caution.
The result was a disappointment to the diet food industry, which has spent years financing studies in an effort to clear saccharin's name. The vote is unlikely to have any effect on the availability of saccharin, however. Despite the controversy surrounding it, the sweetener continues to be also used in many low-calorie and sugar-free foods, including soft drinks, baked goods, jams, canned fruit, candy, dessert toppings and salad dressings.
It is also the major ingredient in Sweet 'N Low, the table-top sweetener in the familiar pink packets, which, like all foods that contain saccharin, carries a congressionally mandated warning label that might be removed should saccharin ever lose its classification as a suspected carcinogen.
Saccharin's troubles began in 1977, when a Canadian scientist first identified it as a possible carcinogen. The Food and Drug Administration proposed banning it, in keeping with a federal law that ordinarily bars from the nation's food supply all substances found to cause cancer in animal studies. But the FDA's plan generated a public outcry. Consumers complained that they had already lost one artificial sweetener, cyclamate, taken off the market after studies had cited it as a cause of cancer. Diabetics, who rely on artificial sweeteners, argued that they needed saccharin. In a compromise, Congress passed a law preventing the ban but requiring the warning labels. In 1981, saccharin went on the government's list, which now has 169 suspected carcinogens, saccharin among them, along with 29 known. In recent years, scientists have tried to figure out precisely how saccharin causes cancer in rats. The debates don't stop here, they are ongoing, who knows what the studies will show in the next 5years or less? If there are other options available for organic toothpastes, sweetners, and drinks etc, why risk it?
Your Health... Your Decision..
