欧盟专家：甜味剂阿斯巴甜不会增加患癌风险
EU Panel: Aspartame Poses No Cancer Risk

摘要：
    做为一种被广泛使用的甜味剂，阿斯巴甜安全与否一直受到一些人的质疑，但一个由科学家组成的欧盟食品安全工作小组日前说，没有迹象表明阿斯巴甜会增加一个人患上癌症的风险。
    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.

    做为一种被广泛使用的甜味剂，阿斯巴甜安全与否一直受到一些人的质疑，但一个由科学家组成的欧盟食品安全工作小组日前说，没有迹象表明阿斯巴甜会增加一个人患上癌症的风险。

    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.

    据美联社日前报道，阿斯巴甜广泛存在于数千种产品里，包括减肥汽水、口香糖、乳制品以及很多种药品。意大利科学家在去年进行的一项研究得出的结论显示，阿斯巴甜会提高实验老鼠患上淋巴瘤及白血病的几率。但负责向欧盟食品安全机构提供咨询服务的专家们日前指出，这一结论是错误的。这个专家小组的负责人、毒物学家伊奥娜·普拉特表示，“我们目前看不出有什么理由需要对阿斯巴甜的安全性做进一步的评估”。

    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.

    美国联邦政府的有关机构曾经对超过50万名美国人食用阿斯巴甜的情况进行过研究。研究的最终结果显示，在这种甜味剂与癌症之间不存在任何联系。欧盟专家小组的观点支持了美国这项大规模研究的结论。欧盟专家小组认为，患有肿瘤的老鼠的数量并未因它们服用了这种甜味剂而有所增加。在去年意大利科学家研究中使用的老鼠里，有很多一直患有慢性呼吸道疾病，按照欧盟专家小组的说法，这才是令它们身上出现肿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.

    欧盟专家小组说，他们所做的评估工作可以使多年来关于阿斯巴甜安全性的争论告一段落了。这些专门从事食品安全研究的科学家们还对欧盟目前实行的阿斯巴甜每日安全食用量标准表示满意。按照该标准，每公斤体重每天的最大摄入量为40毫克，他们认为这一上限其实远高于人们正常的食用量。普拉特在罗马出席该小组评估结论的发布会时表示，“如果你平时总是食用小包装阿斯巴甜的话，那么你每天要在自己的咖啡里放入80小包阿斯巴甜才会超过这一标准。”

    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.

    那些意大利科学家则坚持认为他们当初的研究结论是正确的，并且表示将把有关阿斯巴甜安全性的研究工作继续进行下去。位于意大利博洛尼亚的欧洲拉马奇尼基金会的莫兰多·索弗里蒂博士指责美国人在研究中并未对阿斯巴甜和其它种类的甜味剂加以区分，而且也没有计算一个人终生食用甜味剂的数量。

    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年前被首次推向市场。科学家们在上个世纪70年代进行的一项老鼠实验证明，一种名叫糖精的甜味剂会使得动物患上膀胱癌。尽管引发此种关联的机制并不适用于人类，而且迄今为止也没有任何与人类有关的危险性获得证实，但对于各种蔗糖替代物的安全性的担忧却始终萦绕在人们心头。在索弗里蒂的研究结论被公诸于众后，这种忧虑变得更为明显了。

    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.