China
Africa
Explore chapters and articles related to this topic
Urban Sources of Micropollutants: from the Catchment to the Lake
Published in Nathalie Chèvre, Andrew Barry, Florence Bonvin, Neil Graham, Jean-Luc Loizeau, Hans-Rudolf Pfeifer, Luca Rossi, Torsten Vennemann, Micropollutants in Large Lakes, 2018
Jonas Margot, Luca Rossi, D. A. Barry
Artificial sweeteners, like acesulfame, aspartame, cyclamate, neotame, neohesperidine dihydrochalcone (NHDC), saccharin and sucralose, are widely utilised (increasing over time) in food, beverages and toothpaste, where they act as sugar substitutes (Swithers, 2013). Artificial sweeteners are designed not to be metabolized in the human body (their goal is to provide a negligible energy source). Thus, except for aspartame, neotame and NHDC, which are mostly excreted in metabolite forms, 90 to 100% of all other sweeteners consumed are then released in urine and faeces. The estimated total load of sweeteners in sewers is around 10 to 60 mg d−1 capita−1 (Lange et al., 2012), which is in the same range as the total load of pharmaceuticals. Concentrations of acesulfame, cyclamate, saccharin and sucralose in raw municipal wastewaters are relatively high, with average concentrations of approximately 20-30 pg l−1 (Kokotou and Thomaidis, 2013; Lange et al., 2012).
Chemistry, food and the modern diet: what’s in food besides food?
Published in Richard J. Sundberg, The Chemical Century, 2017
Such terms as “diet,” “light” or “lite,” and “sugar-free” appear on many food products. These products use non-nutritive sweeteners or low-calorie sweeteners that provide little or no caloric energy. The sweeteners function by interaction with one or more receptor proteins located in the “taste buds.”7 The main justification for use of non-nutritive sweeteners is to reduce caloric intake and thus, presumably, reduce obesity and its consequences. As food additives, sweeteners must be approved in the United States by the FDA. The approval process involves setting the acceptable daily intake (ADI), which is the amount that a person could consume per day over a lifetime and expect no adverse result. It is expressed in mg/kg body weight and is usually set at 1/100 the level at which no adverse effect (NOAEL) was noted in animal tests. Sometimes, a precise NOAEL cannot be set, because non-specific effects (e.g., weight-loss because of poor palatability) occur at very high doses in animal tests. Table 9.1 gives the generic name, some brand names, and approximate sweetness relative to sucrose for the sweeteners that we will discuss.
Risky Business
Published in Kenneth L. Mossman, Radiation Risks in Perspective, 2006
Table 1.1 shows a selected list of activities illustrating different combinations of probabilities and consequences as determinants of risk.6 In the case of alcohol consumption, just a few drinks can make some people drunk: operating an automobile under such circumstances is dangerous to the driver and others. For artificial sweeteners (e.g., saccharin), toxic levels are not reached even when used excessively. Although the consequences of nuclear power plant accidents may be severe, the probability of their occurrence is low.7 Many people get a “buzz” from caffeinated beverages, and some may lose sleep at night. However, there are no documented serious consequences to health. Individuals smoking more than 1 to 2 packs per day have a very high risk for cancer and heart disease. Tobacco use is a major preventable cause of disease and death in the U.S. and accounts for almost half a million deaths per year.8 The probability of sunburning can be quite high in places such as Arizona and Australia, even when one is outside for a short time. Non-melanoma skin cancers are the most common cancers, and incidence is highly correlated with sun exposure.
Toxic emissions resulting from sucralose added to electronic cigarette liquids
Published in Aerosol Science and Technology, 2019
Rachel El-Hage, Ahmad El-Hellani, Christina Haddad, Rola Salman, Soha Talih, Alan Shihadeh, Thomas Eissenberg, Najat Aoun Saliba
In 2009, the US FDA banned the addition of characterizing flavors, other than menthol, to tobacco cigarettes. However, characterizing flavors are not banned in the US for other tobacco or nicotine delivery products, including waterpipe tobacco (shisha), smokeless tobacco products, and ECIGs (FDA 2018a). In the case of ECIGs, sweet flavors were found to increase product appeal among youth (Kroemer et al. 2018), increasing the risk of nicotine dependence among youth and probably acting as a gateway to smoking (Spindle et al. 2017; Morgenstern et al. 2018; NIDA 2018). A sweet flavor in ECIG liquid can be obtained by the addition of saccharides (sucrose or honey monosaccharides) or artificial non-caloric sweeteners/sweet enhancers (such as ethyl maltol, sucralose or sorbitol) (Miao et al. 2016; Fagan et al. 2018). Sucralose is a high intensity sweetener (up to 600 times sweeter than sucrose) that is marketed as an additive for Do-It-Yourself (DIY) mixing of ECIG liquids (Rosbrook et al. 2017; Amazon 2018). FDA approves it as a general sweetener for food, but it is not currently listed as “generally recognized as safe” (FDA 2018b).