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Sour Findings on Popular Sweetner
Stirring debate. New rodent data on aspartame, an artificial sweetener used in a variety of consumer goods, suggest the chemical's potential cancer effects deserve more study.
image: Susan Quinland-Stringer/Shutterstock





Increased Cancer Incidence Associated with Low-Dose Aspartame Intake: More than 20 years have passed since aspartame was approved by regulatory agencies as an artificial sweetener. New research out of the European Foundation of Oncology (Study of Cancer) and Environmental Sciences supports other calls to reconsider regulations about using aspartame in order to better protect public health, particularly that of children.
The researchers added aspartame to the food of rats. Each rat was observed from 8 weeks of age until death. Dead animals were examined for microscopic changes in various organs and tissues to find evidence of cancer. A total of 1,800 rodents were included, far more than in previous studies.

Aspartame-fed female rats showed significant evidence of blood cancer and cancers in the kidney and urine ducts. Cancer was seen at daily doses equal to a daily human dose of 20 milligrams per kilogram body weight (20 mg/kg). This dosage is much less than the acceptable daily dose for humans. The current daily limit for humans is set at 50 mg/kg in the United States and 40 mg/kg in Europe. Surveys of people in the United States and Europe, from 1984 to 1992, showed that people typically ate or drank 2-3 mg/kg aspartame daily, with small children and women of child-bearing age taking in slightly more, at 2-5 mg/kg daily.
The public health implications of these findings may be big, since aspartame is used in about 6,000 products, and more than 200 million people regularly take in aspartame through foods, beverages, drugs (such as chewable vitamins), and hygiene products (such as toothpaste).

Edited article from:
EHP Student Edition, June 2006, p. A176
http://www.ehponline.org/docs/2006/114-3/ss.html

Comment on this article:

What evidence in the article tells us that aspartame may be harmful?
What decisions can we make about the food we eat based on the information presented in the article?
Can we conclude from this study that aspartame is definitely harmful to humans?

Follow–up for next class:

Classify your own use of aspartame by estimating the number of products containing aspartame that you eat or drink regularly: “None” (0), “Low” (1–5), “Medium” (6–10), or “High” (11+).