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KFWB NEWS 980 -- ALL NEWS ALL THE TIME
Tuesday, June 25, 2002
Emergency Meeting Over Carcinogen Report
GENEVA (AP) 6.24.02, 10:15a -- Alarmed about new studies
indicating that potato chips, french fries and certain types
of bread contain a substance that may cause cancer, the World
Health Organization has convened an emergency meeting to
evaluate the research and decide what action to take.
The three-day meeting, which opens Tuesday, follows the
publication in April of a Swedish study that some starch-based
foods cooked at high temperatures contained acrylamide.
Acrylamide, used to produce plastics and dyes and to purify
drinking water, has been shown to be carcinogenic in animal
experiments and is suspected of causing cancer among people
exposed to high levels for long periods. Although traces of it
have been found in water, its possible presence at high levels
in basic foods came as a shock.
"If what we know from water and animal experiments is true, it
could be a very significant source of cancer in humans," said
Jorgen Schlundt, coordinator of WHO's food safety division.
"It is not just another food scare," he said.
Such was the level of WHO concern that it organized the
gathering of 25 international experts within two months of the
publication of the Swedish study. According to Schlundt, this
set a "world record" for the U.N. health agency, which usually
takes about one year to organize meetings of experts to review
scientific data.
Although much is known about acrylamide and its effects in
animals, there is far less information about its effects on
humans. After the study was released in April, some U.S.
scientists urged consumers to be patient in awaiting more
investigation.
"I think we need to step back a little bit and wait for
greater discussion of the issue and see the findings presented
in more detail," said Carl Winter, a toxicologist at the
University of California at Davis. "The most important thing
is not the presence or absence of any type of ingredient, but
how much is there."
Mary Ellen Camire, a food scientist and nutritionist at the
University of Maine, was skeptical about any link to cancer
and said it was important to remember that whole-grain bread
and potatoes contain a lot of important nutrients.
"The risk-to-benefit ratio is hard to estimate," she said at
the time. "We eat a lot of strange chemicals, but that's life.
You just have to get a balance."
Schlundt said subsequent studies in Norway, Britain and
Switzerland basically backed up the findings of Sweden's
National Food Administration.
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