From foodconsumer.org
Aspartame causes cancer in rats, how do you respond?
By Ben Wasserman
Feb 13, 2006 - 1:54:00 PM
Aspartame has been known for some time to be a possible carcinogen, among other things.
Dr. Morando Soffritti and his team did a though study of the effect of aspartame on cancer risk in rats. They reported last year that aspartame increases risk of lymphoma and leukemia.
A new study by the same group, scheduled to appear in the March issue of Environmental Health Perspectives, reveals more of the same type of evidence: Aspartame is a possible carcinogen.
There seems to be no doubt the risk is real to rats. Of course, it remains unknown how it would affect humans.
In the US, there is a program under the Department of Health and Human Service that is responsible for the blacklisting of all known and probable human carcinogens (cancer-causing agents).
Known human carcinogens are those for which enough evidence has been obtained from human studies and others. But if the cancer-causing evidence is limited to animals and laboratory tests, they may be listed as a "reasonably probable human carcinogens."
Dr. Morando Soffritti's team suggests the aspartame is a possible carcinogen, not because there is only weak evidence, but because the evidence is from animal studies.
Does that mean humans would or wouldn't get affected by aspartame? Many previous studies have proved that aspartame is not linked with increased risk of cancer. But studies have their limits.
According to Dr. Soffritti, the reason other studies could not find the association between use of aspartame and elevated risk of cancer is that those studies often consider only the first 2-year life of the animals. 2 years for rats is equal to 53 years for humans. Cancer needs to take longer time to develop. People younger than 53 years old are much less likely to have cancer compared with older people.
What makes Dr. Soffritti's studies different from others is that Dr. Soffritti's team examines the effect of aspartame only after the rats naturally die at the age of about three years.
In response, Dr. David Katz, professor of Yale University, tries on ABC News web site to quell peoples' fear about aspartame's possible carcinogenicity.
Without attacking the evidence of the rats study, he says aspartame has no risk. The reason he says is, if there is a risk, we would know it.
He says cancer-causing agents are present in certain vegetables meaning if there is a risk associated with aspartame, so what? He says if you want to avoid cancer, quit smoking. He makes a point.
But does that mean it is safe to use aspartame? What he says is commonly known, but it should not bear any weight on people's judgment on the safety of aspartame.
However, he does raise an interesting issue. That is, how we should respond to such an aspartame-rats study? Would you continue drinking the aspartame-added soda and other products? Or you would avoid all of thousands products with aspartame from now on?
The fact is, ingestion of some weak cancer causing agent may not necessarily cause any cancer. Some people are more vulnerable to cancer than others.
The problem is, you never know if you are a susceptible type. You don’t know how much cancer causing agent(s) is too much for you to handle.
Regardless of aspartame's carcinogenicity, you have many things to worry about in terms of cancer risk. Your attitude may likely be an important risk factor as well, affecting your odds of getting a cancer.