New study contradicts saccharin findings

Press, 11 April 1977, Page 6

New study contradicts saccharin findings

NZPA-Reuter Baltimore The consumption of saccharin does not have a significant effect on the development of bladder cancer in humans, according to a ■research group in Baltimore, Maryland. A Johns Hopkins University research group has studied 1038 people over a four-year period to determine the effect of artificial sweeteners on humans, the' “Baltimore Sun” newspaper says. “After reviewing their exposures, we have concluded that the eating of saccharin (does not have any sig■nificant effect on the development of cancer in the bladder in humans,” Dr Irving Kessler, professor of epidemiology, and director of the study at the John Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health, is quoted as saying in an interview with the newspaper. The Food and Drug Administration's ban on saccharin was based on a Canadian research project that said that a steady consumption of saccharin resulted in the development of bladder cancer in some rats. The F.D.A. ban will not take effect before July at the earliest. Of the 1038 people studied. some had bladder cancer and some did not, Dr Kessler said. However, he said that in both groups, the same proportion of people consumed saccharin. However, Dr Kessler added that neither studv was necessarily in error, because ’such research was based on (many studies gradually con'verging on the truth.