August 3, 1999
Scientists To Study Sweetener's Link To Cancer
By Clar Ni Chonghaile
LONDON (Reuters) - British scientists said Tuesday they would carry out
a three-year study into the artificial sweetener aspartame, marketed as
NutraSweet, which has been dogged by allegations that it is linked to
brain tumors.
``We are not trying to conduct a war against NutraSweet. This is a
serious, scientific study to try to re-examine something that is already
in the scientific realm,'' Peter Nunn, a senior lecturer in biochemistry
at King's College, London told Reuters.
Aspartame became a major scientific talking point in 1996 when a
professor at Washington University in St. Louis said it appeared to be a
promising candidate for explaining a surge in brain tumors in the
mid-1980s.
NutraSweet AG, which markets the sweetener in Europe, welcomed the new
British study, saying it hoped it would lay to rest the ``groundless
rumors'' surrounding aspartame, widely used in low calorie soft drinks
and foods.
The British scientists said they were interested in examining the
possibility that some people were genetically disposed to be more
sensitive to aspartame than others.
``We are just trying to find a different way to look at it,'' Nunn said.
NutraSweet is a unit of life sciences firm Monsanto Co (NYSE:MCT - news)
. The parent company said on July 1 it was planning to sell its
NutraSweet artificial sweetener and biogum businesses.
``There is already an overwhelming amount of scientific evidence which
confirms the safety of aspartame, but scare-mongerers have continued to
claim that aspartame is linked to brain tumors,'' the company said in a
statement.
It said there was no way aspartame there could be such a link. ``It is
physiologically impossible for aspartame to cause brain tumors because
it never enters the blood stream and thus cannot travel to essential
organs, including the brain.''
Aspartame is made up of amino acids much sweeter than sugar but has not
been shown to aid dieters much in losing weight.
NutraSweet was approved for sale by the U.S. Food and Drug
Administration (FDA) in 1981. Monsanto held the patent until it expired
in 1992.
In 1996, John Olney of Washington University said other risk factors
common to industrialized nations like higher levels of ionizing
radiation, smoke in the air, pesticides and industrial chemicals could
also be responsible for rising tumor rates.
But he cited the ``need for a reassessment of the carcinogenic
(cancer-causing) potential'' of aspartame.
Nunn said his team wanted to look at the effect of aspartame on
different cell types.
``We were interested in looking at the situation again because it is now
known that there are a number of mutations which are available in cell
culture which could be much more sensitive to possible carcinogens than
unmutated cells.''
He said the way different people reacted to cigarette smoke was an
example of what they would be examining.
``We just don't know why it is that some people are resistant to
carcinogens in tobacco smoke while others are very sensitive. It may be
something like that (with aspartame).''
Copyright © 1996-1999 Reuters Limited.
--
Judith Richards, London, Ontario, Canada
[log in to unmask]
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