A new study of the Cesare Maltoni Cancer Research Center of the European Ramazzini Foundation has not only confirmed but further reinforced the results of an earlier study by the same research institute that found the artificial sweetener Aspartame to cause cancers and leukemia in rats. The earlier study was condescendingly dismissed by industry and by the European Food Safety Agency as well as US FDA, but evidence of the damage done by the sweetener does not seem to be going away. If anything, the scientific findings overwhelmingly suggest that there are real problems that can no longer be brushed under the carpet.

The new Italian study finds that Aspartame, in doses similar to those found in a modern diet, when given over the whole life span of rats, causes an increased incidence of cancers.

Dr Morando Soffritti, left, receiving award

Earlier this year, the Italian researcher responsible for the studies, Dr. Morando Soffritti, received the Selikoff Award for his groundbreaking cancer research. Soffritti introduced the results of this second aspartame study when receiving the award, but the FDA, with a well-timed press release about the two-year-old FIRST study, distracted the attention of the press from the current news. A clever strategy, to be sure - it kept the press from picking up on the new findings.

The now imminent publication of the new study in the US National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences's Environmental Health Perspectives, which on its website also provides a copy of the whole study in PDF format, might shake the complacency of our health watchdogs. After all, their priority should be the protection of consumer health, rather than industry's sales. But somehow I think we would be wrong to hold our breaths for that to happen.

The abstract of the new study can be found on this page of the Ramazzini Foundation's website. An interesting response from the study author on dosages tested and their conversion into human terms can be found on this blog.

Long time Aspartame campaigner Betty Martini has documented the FDA's reversals over - and the agency's final approval of - the sweetener through what appears to have been overwhelming political pressure. Betty comments here on this new study which confirms her fears over the sweetener's safety.

Meanwhile, it appears, some rats are abandoning the sinking ship. Supermarkets in the UK have eliminated aspartame and other additives from their soft drinks, and Coca Cola Company, together with Cargill, is doing research needed for the approval of a natural alternative to aspartame: stevia, a sweet herb from the Amazon.