Cancer, etc - radio info

[netmouse]

I caught part of the Diane Rehm show this morning and heard an interesting discussion of cancer-causing product concerns (gist of the main part: Aspartame has not been proven to be safe and some frightening studies show a tendency for it to cause tumors - avoid it unless you're diabetic and even then seek other alternatives. Especially, do not feed it to children).

The guest was Devra Davis, Director of the Center for Environmental Oncology at the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, and author of The Secret History of the War on Cancer.

One of the callers asked about putting sunscreen on children. First Ms. Davis pointed out that one concern about always using sunscreen is that you might deprive kids (or adults) of their needed 20 minutes of sun exposure a day (which allows us to produce the Vitamin D we need). Then she went on to address the caller's concern that some products are carcinogenic in and of themselves, offering more risk exposure than no sunscreen at all. She said that some products are safer than others, but since she didn't really have time to go into it, she recommended people go to EWG.org, to find out more information about toxics in consumer products and to figure out what is safer to use with your kids.

I just wanted to pass that along.

Comments

[kitschicat.livejournal.com]

Interesting stuff, but I also wonder how much fearmongering is going on there too. I don't know. Trust no one, I suppose! LOL

[netmouse.livejournal.com]

Well, she had an interesting story about Aspartame, which boiled down to: the administration called for a judgment to be made because they weren't satisfied with the evidence offered, and the group that was supposed to make that judgment never finished their job and subsequently a number of people within the food and drug administration left their jobs and were hired by Searle. And after Reagan was elected, Searle's Chief Executive Officer (Donald Rumsfield for those who are interested) reapplied and it was approved.

[mjwise.livejournal.com]

Regardless of shortcomings in the approval process (Rumsfeld! Booga booga!), there has been little scientific evidence suggesting aspartame is tumor-producing in humans, not to mention you can't really prove anything to be "safe" (itself a value judgment, not some unattainable level of no risk). I like the New Zealand Food Safety Authority take on the issue (http://www.nzfsa.govt.nz/publications/media-releases/2007/aspartame-activists-3-8-2007.htm).

- Spoken as one who intakes products containing aspartame pretty daily.

[netmouse.livejournal.com]

The comment on the show was that there was a recent study with rats that took the animals into their third year of life, which is not commonly done, and that most of the tumors developed in that third year, the concern being that brain cancer is in fact something that develops very slowly. She also expressed concern that most animal studies start with adult animals, so we don't have evidence as to the effect on babies or juveniles. Again,t his is just what she was saying.

Me, I don't eat or drink aspartame because I can't stand the taste.

[(Anonymous)]

Rats & mice are already cancer-prone, so I wonder how this'd translate to humans, if at all.

[jennkitty.livejournal.com]

I am D-ficient, but it's apparently a result of living in Oregon. My doc has me on a D supplement, to make sure I don't get all rickety. Hadn't thought about sunscreen affecting that.

[lauriemann.livejournal.com]

I've heard Devra speak at a number of environmental events here in Pittsburgh. While I'm not sure I agree with everything she says, I don't think she's quite a fear-monger either. I'd like to try to read her latest book. The local paper had a long article about it today - http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07283/824115-113.stm

I'm probably a bit more cynical about what influences cancer as I'm a DES daughter. No cancer, but lots of extra testing and some amount of extra worrying.

[novapsyche.livejournal.com]

Stevia is a good substitute for sugar. Very sweet, all-natural, and noncaloric!

(I don't like the taste of aspartame, either.)

[lauriemann.livejournal.com]

Devra is having an online chat today (Thursday, October 11) at 11:30 EDT at:

http://www.post-gazette.com/chat/

I plan to attend.

She's very interesting if nothing else.

[sorcycat.livejournal.com]

I appreciate the info. It turns out the sunscreen we used for the kiddo is really, really bad. (Interestingly, I went to it because he has a reaction to the previous sunscreen, like I do to some sunscreens.) I'm going to be looking for a different brand next summer.