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Aspartame a possible carcinogen, WHO cancer research agency expected to say (www.rnz.co.nz)

submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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One of the world's most common artificial sweeteners is set to be declared a possible carcinogen.

(Edit- Question from OP: downvoters, do you not want me to post stories like this, or are you expressing disagreement with some of the people in the report?)

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago (1 children)

From the article:

One of the world's most common artificial sweeteners is set to be declared a possible carcinogen next month by a leading global health body, according to two sources with knowledge of the process, pitting it against the food industry and regulators.

Aspartame, used in products from Coca-Cola diet sodas to Mars' Extra chewing gum and some Snapple drinks, will be listed in July as "possibly carcinogenic to humans" for the first time by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), the World Health Organisation's (WHO) cancer research arm, the sources said.

The IARC ruling, finalised earlier this month after a meeting of the group's external experts, is intended to assess whether something is a potential hazard or not, based on all the published evidence.

It does not take into account how much of a product a person can safely consume. This advice for individuals comes from a separate WHO expert committee on food additives, known as JECFA (the Joint WHO and Food and Agriculture Organization's Expert Committee on Food Additives), alongside determinations from national regulators.

However, similar IARC rulings in the past for different substances have raised concerns among consumers about their use, led to lawsuits, and pressured manufacturers to recreate recipes and swap to alternatives. That has led to criticism that the IARC's assessments can be confusing to the public.

JECFA, the WHO committee on additives, is also reviewing aspartame use this year. Its meeting began at the end of June and it is due to announce its findings on the same day that the IARC makes its decision public - on 14 July.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

It does not take into account how much of a product a person can safely consume.

So I'm getting the sense this is about as meaningful as "Known to the state of California to possibly cause cancer".

I'm really not a fan of this extreme level of caution when it comes to public health warnings. There comes a point when people will simply stop listening to you entirely if you constantly tell them that everything they do has some 0.00001% chance of harming them. Then, when you try to warn people about genuinely concerning risks, people will simply ignore you.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

I discovered that California cancer thing recently when I bought a keyring tool. Crazy.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Its the way its reported.

A few years back there seemed to be a plethora of studies which were "Consuning <insert hot liquid> increases chance of throat cancer".

You would have to go to the source report (if lucky the bottom of the article) to find out it increased the risk by 0.1% - 0.5%.

When you factor in only 2,300 people in the UK (70 million) get throat cancer each year and the biggest risk factor was smoking and non smokers are pretty much within statistical error bars.

It makes the report uninteresting and only useful in a "someone already looked into this" way and yet a month would go buy and there would be a new article .. who knew chicken soup causes cancer...