NZ Herald | 30 June 2023
An artificial sweetener used in Diet Coke could “possibly” cause cancer, the World Health Organisation (WHO) is set to announce.
Aspartame, which is used in thousands of products including yoghurt and chewing gum, will be listed next month as “possibly carcinogenic to humans” for the first time by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), the WHO cancer research arm, two sources told Reuters.
The IARC, which assesses whether something is a potential hazard based on the published evidence, has previously come under scrutiny for causing alarm.
It previously put working overnight and consuming red meat into its “probably cancer-causing” class, and using mobile phones as “possibly cancer-causing”, similar to Aspartame.
