LEDERBERG = ME Mitor
GENETICS DEPARTMENT Med ‘Trib " RO

STANFORD UNIVERSITY
STANFORD, CALIFORNIA

 

 

A propos your editorial on "Cyclamate":

1. The Nature commentator plainly did not
have available the elementary facts and scien-
tific recommendations on which the ban on
cyclamate was based. A legitimate complaint
can indeed be lodged against the failure to.
give clearer publicity to these considerations.

2. You compare the conclusions about cycla-
mates adversely in relation to cigarette
smoking. Certainly, the campaign against
tobacco has suffered from the most irrational
and self-serving evasions; but this is no ex-
cuse for doing the same again.

I agree about the relative strength of the
evidence against tobacco being much stronger;
however, I might also recall that only after
the most extensive efforts has it been pos-
sible to inculpate the carcinogenicity of
inhaled tobacco smoke, and this only very re-
cently.

Your complacency about the harmlessness of
cyclamates "after wide use in this country
for at least 15 years" might well allay my
own skepticism if you could point to any large
scale epidemiological studies on the subject
covering such a petiod of exposure. The dif-
ficulty of attempting such a task makes the
hazard all the more insidious.

. Pleess
seocfitt

An
fone

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