歐盟專家：甜味劑阿斯巴甜不會增加患癌風險
EU Panel: Aspartame Poses No Cancer Risk

摘要：
    做為一種被廣泛使用的甜味劑，阿斯巴甜安全與否一直受到一些人的質疑，但一個由科學家組成的歐盟食品安全工作小組日前說，沒有跡象表明阿斯巴甜會增加一個人患上癌癥的風險。
    The popular diet sweetener aspartame won another round in the safety debate when a European panel of scientists said Friday there's no sign it raises the risk of cancer.

    做為一種被廣泛使用的甜味劑，阿斯巴甜安全與否一直受到一些人的質疑，但一個由科學家組成的歐盟食品安全工作小組日前說，沒有跡象表明阿斯巴甜會增加一個人患上癌癥的風險。

    The popular diet sweetener aspartame won another round in the safety debate when a European panel of scientists said Friday there's no sign it raises the risk of cancer.

    據美聯社日前報道，阿斯巴甜廣泛存在于數千種產品里，包括減肥汽水、口香糖、乳制品以及很多種藥品。意大利科學家在去年進行的一項研究得出的結論顯示，阿斯巴甜會提高實驗老鼠患上淋巴瘤及白血病的幾率。但負責向歐盟食品安全機構提供咨詢服務的專家們日前指出，這一結論是錯誤的。這個專家小組的負責人、毒物學家伊奧娜·普拉特表示，“我們目前看不出有什么理由需要對阿斯巴甜的安全性做進一步的評估”。

    An Italian study last year wrongly concluded the sugar substitute led to higher rates of lymphoma and leukemia in rats, said the experts who advise the European Food Safety Authority.

    "There is no reason ... to undertake any further extensive review of the safety of aspartame," said Iona Pratt, a toxicologist who headed the panel.

    美國聯邦政府的有關機構曾經對超過50萬名美國人食用阿斯巴甜的情況進行過研究。研究的最終結果顯示，在這種甜味劑與癌癥之間不存在任何聯系。歐盟專家小組的觀點支持了美國這項大規模研究的結論。歐盟專家小組認為，患有腫瘤的老鼠的數量并未因它們服用了這種甜味劑而有所增加。在去年意大利科學家研究中使用的老鼠里，有很多一直患有慢性呼吸道疾病，按照歐盟專家小組的說法，這才是令它們身上出現腫瘤的最有可能的原因。

    The findings support a large U.S. federal study released last month, which found no link to cancer in a study of aspartame use among more than half a million Americans.

    Aspartame is found in thousands of products, including diet sodas, chewing gum, dairy products and even many medicines. It's sold under the brand names NutraSweet, Equal and Canderel.

    The new review of its potential health risks found that the number of tumors in rats did not increase in relation to the dosage of aspartame fed to the animals. Many of the rats in the study had suffered from chronic respiratory disease and the panel said that was the most likely cause of the tumors.

    歐盟專家小組說，他們所做的評估工作可以使多年來關于阿斯巴甜安全性的爭論告一段落了。這些專門從事食品安全研究的科學家們還對歐盟目前實行的阿斯巴甜每日安全食用量標準表示滿意。按照該標準，每公斤體重每天的最大攝入量為40毫克，他們認為這一上限其實遠高于人們正常的食用量。普拉特在羅馬出席該小組評估結論的發布會時表示，“如果你平時總是食用小包裝阿斯巴甜的話，那么你每天要在自己的咖啡里放入80小包阿斯巴甜才會超過這一標準。”

    The European panel said its assessment should put the lid on years of debate over the sweetener. The food safety scientists were also satisfied with the current European level set for its safe daily consumption — a maximum of 40 milligrams per kilogram (about 2.2 pounds) of body weight — saying that the limit is well above what people consume normally.

    "If you pick up little packets of it, you would have to take 80 of those packets into your coffee in one day in order to exceed this level," Pratt said at a presentation in Rome of the panel's findings.

    那些意大利科學家則堅持認為他們當初的研究結論是正確的，并且表示將把有關阿斯巴甜安全性的研究工作繼續進行下去。位于意大利博洛尼亞的歐洲拉馬奇尼基金會的莫蘭多·索弗里蒂博士指責美國人在研究中并未對阿斯巴甜和其它種類的甜味劑加以區分，而且也沒有計算一個人終生食用甜味劑的數量。

    The Italian researchers who conducted the rat study insisted that their initial findings were correct and pledged to continue studying the subject.

    Dr. Morando Soffritti, who led the study for the Bologna-based European Ramazzini Foundation, also assailed the U.S. study, saying that it was an example of how "some researchers are ready to put themselves at the disposal of the industry" that produces sweeteners. He contended the U.S. research didn't distinguish between aspartame and other sweetener use and did not measure lifetime sweetener use.

    阿斯巴甜于25年前被首次推向市場。科學家們在上個世紀70年代進行的一項老鼠實驗證明，一種名叫糖精的甜味劑會使得動物患上膀胱癌。盡管引發此種關聯的機制并不適用于人類，而且迄今為止也沒有任何與人類有關的危險性獲得證實，但對于各種蔗糖替代物的安全性的擔憂卻始終縈繞在人們心頭。在索弗里蒂的研究結論被公諸于眾后，這種憂慮變得更為明顯了。

    Aspartame first came on the market 25 years ago. Research in the 1970s linked a different sweetener, saccharin, to bladder cancer in lab rats. Although the mechanism by which this occurred does not apply to people and no human risk was ever documented, worries about sugar substitutes in general have persisted.