Controversy Trails WHO’s Alarm On How Chewing Gum, Toothpaste, Soft Drinks, Others Pose Cancer Risk

The alarm raised by World Health Organisation (WHO) on how artificial sweeteners in products like chewing gum, toothpaste, and soft drinks, among others can pose cancer risk has stirred up a controversy in the health world.

Naija News reports that while the WHO yesterday warned that artificial sweeteners in products like fizzy drinks, chewing gums and low-calorie foods pose a potential cancer risk, Cancer Research UK said artificial sweeteners such as aspartame do not cause cancer.

The Guardian said the WHO in a reclassification, according to insiders, revealed that aspartame is to be listed as “possibly carcinogenic to humans.”

The global agency noted that its conclusion follows a major safety review of artificial sugar replacement in 1,300 studies.

But the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) in a contrary opinion argues that “the dose makes the poison.”

A report, first published by Daily Mail UK, listed some products containing aspartame that entered the market in the 1980s as Diet Coke, Dr Pepper and Fanta, as well as extra chewing gum and Muller Light yoghurts. Some toothpaste, dessert mixes and sugar-free cough drops.

Meanwhile, the report of the global agency has sent showers into the food manufacturing industry because most producers resorted to the mass use of artificial sweeteners such as aspartame when the campaign of limited sugar was intensified.

However, relevant bodies claimed the IARC review consisted of “widely discredited research,” which “contradicts decades of high-quality evidence.”

It was learnt that the IARC ruling, yet to be publicly announced, is intended to assess whether something is a potential hazard or not, based on published ‘evidence’.

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

The Food and Agriculture Organisation’s Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA), also revealed that it’s reviewing aspartame use and would announce its findings on the same day that IARC makes public its decision on July 14, it claimed.