A study published by Environmental Health Perspectives claims that lifetime exposure to low doses of Aspartame, the artificial sweetener used in most diet drinks and sodas, increases leukemia, lymphoma, and breast cancer effects in rats.

Center For Science In The Public Intrest (CSPI) is recommending that the FDA reevaluate the health risks of aspartame:

“Because aspartame is so widely consumed, it is urgent that the FDA evaluate whether aspartame still poses a ‘reasonable certainty of no harm,’ the standard used for gauging the safety of food additives,” said CSPI executive director Michael F. Jacobson. “But consumers, particularly parents, shouldn’t wait for the FDA to act. People shouldn’t panic, but they should stop buying beverages and foods containing aspartame.”

But the FDA isn’t moved by it:

However, the conclusions from this second European Ramazzini Foundation are not consistent with those from the large number of studies on aspartame that have been evaluated by FDA, including five previously conducted negative chronic carcinogenicity studies,” Herndon said in an e-mail.

“Therefore, at this time, FDA finds no reason to alter its previous conclusion that aspartame is safe as a general purpose sweetener in food.”

Meanwhile the CSPI is saying aspartame is something that “everyone should avoid.”

[New Cancer Worries For Diet Soda Drinkers]

[tags]aspartame, breast cancer, leukemia, lymphoma[/tags]