see STANFORD UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER
ie STANFORD, CALIFORNIA 94305 (415) 321-1200

 

STANFORD UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE
Department of Genetics November 7 ? 1969

Editor

Chemical and Engineering News
1155 Sixteenth Street, N. W.
Washington, D. C. 20036

Dear Sir,

Your article (October 27) on cyclamate complains that it is "unrealistic
and unscientific" to ban it on the basis of experiments with animals fed
for a few years at 50 times the expected human exposure. Given (1) that
bladder cancer may take ten to twenty years' chronic exposure, (2) that
children may be expected to be more sensitive than adults, (3) that
carcinogens interact with many environmental and individual variables
which can scarcely be replicated in the laboratory, and (4) that it would
be a disaster if as many as one per thousand exposed people succumbed
to chemically induced cancer, just what "realistic and scientific"
measures would you propose to assure the safety of a food additive?

And would you then disregard the clear warning signals of chromosome
breakage induced by quite modest levels of cyclohexylamine?

Sincerely yours,

Joshua Lederberg
Professor of Genetics

ce:Mr. Howard Sanders, Senio Associate Editor
JL/rr