Saccharin Removed from Cancer List

      More than two decades after a study in rats prompted scientists to link saccharin to human cancer, the federal government is dropping the artificial sweetener from its list of cancer-causing chemicals.

      Officials at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences said Monday that new studies show no clear association between saccharin and human cancer.

      The announcement came with the release of the ninth National Toxicology Report on Carcinogens, a biennial listing of chemicals that the federal agency thinks cause, or possibly cause, cancer.

      "Two decades ago, when saccharin was shown to produce bladder tumors in rats, it was a prudent, protective step to consider the sweetener to be a likely human carcinogen," said Dr. Kenneth Olden, director of the institute and the National Toxicology Program.

      Olden said an advance in scientific understanding "allows us to make finer distinctions today. ... In other words, with better science we can now make a better call."

      Studies now indicate that the saccharin-linked bladder tumors in laboratory rats are known to be "not relevant to the human situation," Olden said, and decades of human saccharin use "adds to our confidence."

      The action follows three years of new studies and scientific reviews about the effects of saccharin, the announcement said.

      Saccharin previously has received a clean bill of health from such groups as the American Cancer Society, the American Medical Association, the American Dietetic Association and the American Diabetes Association.

      The report also removed from the carcinogen list the chemical ethyl acrylate, which is used in the manufacture of latex paints and textiles. It had been listed in 1989 as "reasonably anticipated to be a human carcinogen." A review of lab studies showed that the chemical caused cancer in rats only at high concentrations. Human exposure in such a way, the report said, is unlikely.

      The report contains 218 cancer-causing substances.

      Formal additions to the list of known human carcinogens include environmental tobacco smoke, directly inhaled tobacco smoke, smokeless tobacco, alcoholic beverages, sunlamps and sunbeds, and six industrial chemicals and dyes. Many studies already have linked those substances to cancers, and the new listing formally recognizes the link.

      Also added to the list was tamoxifen. Although it fights breast cancer, the drug also increases the risk of uterine cancer.

      Seven chemicals, including diesel exhaust particulates, were added to the list of substances reasonably anticipated to be human carcinogens. The other additions are industrial chemicals.

      There are three other artificial sweeteners now in wide commercial use - aspartame, sucaralose and acesul-fame potassium - none of which has been linked to cancer, said Keith Keeney of the Calorie Control Council.