WHO INVESTIGATES ASPARTAME FOR CANCER LINKS
Aspartame is an artificial sweetener widely used all over the world. Now, the World Health Organisation has announced that it’s doing research regarding the sweetener’s link to cancer.
WHO’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) said that the sweetener could be listed as “possibly carcinogenic to humans” for the first time in July. Aspartame was approved by health authorities in the United States decades ago.
The sweetener is available in widely consumed products like Coca-Cola’s sugar-free options, sugar-free gum and some Snapple drinks.
According to the IARC, the amount consumed by a person should be the deciding factor as quantities play a big role.
Reuters reports that it doesn’t 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 Organisation’s Expert Committee on Food Additives), alongside determinations from national regulators.
In 1981, JECFA said that an adult weighing about 60kg would have to consume between 12 and 36 cans of cooldrink containing aspartame for them to be at risk.
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