BYPRODUCT OF SUCRALOSE, A CHEMICAL IN SPLENDA, FOUND TO CAUSE 'SIGNIFICANT HEALTH EFFECTS' IN NEW STUDY
In the same announcement, the Joint Expert Committee on Food Additives , another group within WHO, seemed to contradict the IARC’s classification. Often, she added,"people who are subject to multiple carcinogens can increase their risk of getting cancer exponentially."Many industry experts maintain that aspartame is still safe for consumption — including the FDA, which released a statement refuting the cancer risk.
"We note that JECFA did not raise safety concerns for aspartame under the current levels of use and did not change the acceptable daily intake .", have also deemed aspartame to be safe at the current recommended levels, the FDA added. "It is irresponsible to needlessly scare or confuse people," he said."If there was any cause for concern, they would have adjusted the current acceptable daily intake .", also spoke out in defense of aspartame as a safe food additive.
The International Agency for Research on Cancer , a cancer-focused organization within WHO, was the agency that actually called out the sweetener’s potential cancer risk. "IARC classified aspartame as ‘possibly carcinogenic to humans’ based on limited evidence for cancer in humans and experimental animals, and limited evidence that it might behave as a carcinogen," he said.
"Aspartame will now be included in that final group, but keep in mind that none of those have been convincingly proven to cause cancer," he added.and the American Cancer Society all have evaluated the same evidence in the past, and all of them concluded that there was no clear evidence that artificial sweeteners cause cancer when consumed at typical levels, Hawk said.
For some people, aspartame may cause physical symptoms that include headaches, dizziness, digestive ailments and allergic responses, Jhaveri noted.