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Show lib Your Man In Washington By U.S. Senator Orrin G. Hatch A Second Look at Saccharin The U.S. F(xh1 and Drug Administration will ban the use of the artificial sweetener saccharin this July despite a nationwide protest against the action. The federal agency came to thnt decision after years of inconclusive U.S. testing and one questionable ques-tionable Canadian study. That most recent investigation in-vestigation determined the sweetener, when fed to rats in massive doses, caused cancer. I'rior to the Canudian report, 7!i months of continuous U.S. research did not demonstrate with any degree of certainty that saccharin Msed a risk to humans. The federal government's General Accounting Ac-counting Office said in August ')7( that results of federal studies could show a relationship between the consumption of massive doses of saccharin and cancerous bladder tumors in rats under certain circumstances. cir-cumstances. The (iAO goes on to say, however, those studies cannot show that saccharin itself was the cause of the honors. Il might just as easily have been a natural physical rcnclion to excessive consumption con-sumption of an otherwise pure chemical. Saccharin has been UHi'd by the American people peo-ple for about )l() yearH. There are 10 million diabetics ill this country who have no other choice for sweetening. Until now the U.S. (iongrcHH lias tried to steer clear of decisions based on t scientific judgement, leaving leav-ing those concerns to government scientists. With this in mind. Congress Con-gress enacted the Delaney Clause to the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act in l0."o. Itasicly, the clause insures that unsafe cancer-causing substances do not enter into our food supply. Il bans any food additive that, in its words, "is found to induce cancer when ingested by man or animal." Strict interpretation interpreta-tion of this provision, after l() years of technological a d v a n c e ni cut, h a s changed its meaning to a most oppressive passage. In theory the Delaney Clause was written to save lives, but in a practical sense it could do just the opHisile. Saccharin is a chemical which will not readily transport bacteria as sugar docs. Ilecause of this ii 1 1 i 1 1 it- quality, saccharin sac-charin is used as a carrier for necessary drugs whose purity is vital. The sweetener, t hcrcforc, serves double duty both as a preservative and a flavor enhancer. Finally, removing saccharin from the marketplace opens the risk of heart disease to hundreds hun-dreds of thousands of overweight Americans who are dieting under a physician's care using saccharin sac-charin as a sugar substitute. For these and other iincalculatcd dangers, the saccharin issue demands a second look ! |