WHO Plan to List Aspartame as ‘Possible Carcinogen’ Ignites Decades-Old Debate About Safety — and Donald Rumsfeld’s Role in FDA Approval

By John-Michael Dumais

News that the World Health Organization (WHO) on Friday is expected to classify aspartame as a “possible carcinogen” has reignited a debate that has churned since the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) first approved the artificial sweetener more than four decades ago.

Aspartame, sold under the brand names NutraSweet, Equal and Sugar Twin, is widely used in diet sodas and in sugar-free and “reduced-sugar” food products, including ice cream, gum, yogurt and salad dressing. It is even found in such non-food products as mouthwash and cough medicine.

Tomorrow’s ruling — by the WHO’s quasi-independent cancer research arm, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) — means the IARC found only limited evidence linking aspartame to cancer in humans, based on its system of classifying potential hazards on a scale from “carcinogenic” to “probably not carcinogenic.”