The Arizona copper camp., 1919-11-08
SUGAR VERSUS
SACCHARIN; THE
LATTER POISONS

Under the cloak of the sugar short
age, propaganda is apparently under
way for commercial advantage and
perhaps for political salvage to get
the public to consume saccharin. This
would indeed be a sweet use of ad-
versity, in view of the great concen-
tration of sweetening potency. 1t
would make good the deprivation of
1O0,000,000 pounds of sugar. 1t would
admittedly have none of the food
value which has made sugar one Of
the cheapest of foods But, it is con-
tended, the nations sweet tooth
would lie gratified, and in an entirely
innocuous fashion
But is there this assumed absence
of danger? At a time when the war
has focused public thought upon pub
lie health, and the Red Cross is max
ing physical betterment OF the nation
part of its peace program, are we
perhaps courting a new and insidious
peril?
Prohibition is accused by it's foes
of having to date stimulated decid-
edly the drinking of various patent
nostrums high in alcohol content, as
we'll as concoctions of snuff, jamaica
ginger, etc. Is it to be branded as
the indirect cause of another health
menace through the premium it has
put, according to Hoover, on our per
capita of sugar?
Some years ago President Roose-
velt appointed what is known as the
referee board of consulting scientific
experts, composed of some of the
most eminent chemists in this coun~
try, who were assigned the task of
determining by extensive experiment
tation whether various substances
were harmful when consumed as
foods.
With reference to saccharin this
board reported in part: "The con-
tinued use of saccharin for long
time in quantities over three-tenthS
of a gram a day is liable to impair
digestion; and the addition OF sac
charm as a substitute for cane SUI
gar or other form of sugar reduces
the food value of the sweetened pro-
duct and hence lowers its quality.
"Saccharin has been used as
substitute for sugar in over thirty
classes of foods in which sugar is
commonly recognized as a normal
and valuable ingredient. If the use
of saccharin be continued it is eyi-
dent that amounts of saccharin may
readily be consumed which will,
through continual use, produce di-
gestive disturbances. In every food
in which saccharin is used some
other sweetening agent harmless to
health can be substituted.
''Under the food and drug act arti-
cles of food are adulterated if they
contain added poisonous or other
added deleterious ingredients which
may render them injurious to health.
Articles of food are also adulterated
within the meaning of the act II
substances have been mixed and
packed with the foods so as to re-
duce or lower or injuriously affect
their quality or strength.
"The findings Of the referee board
1c
an added poisonous or other added
deleterious ingredient as is contem-
plated in the act"
These findings were arrived at only
after a long and intensive series OF
experiments conducted upon healthy,
normal human beings. Since the
disturbances thus produced would
surely have Teen intensified greatly
had sickly, aged or very young per-
sons been experimental with, it is
evident that the indiscriminate sale
and use of this synthetic drug for
sweetening purposes may be attended
with dangerous effects upon the pub
lie health.
/ We may not now be able to repair
the loss of opportunity in not having
acted earlier to get more foreign
grown sugar, or to leave the do
mestic trade free to get it, or to see
that some of us didn't stock up at
the expense of others Of us. The
sensible thing now is to devise the
best possible rationing of the ship
ments currently arriving and tenn
porarily endure what our progenitorrs
thought an abundance rather than
flirt with what may prove a treach-
erous substitute.