Saccharin: No Longer Hazardous?
04.22.10 9:18 AMThe EPA is proposing a rule that would alter the treatment of saccharin. The agency proposes to amend its current regulations under RCRA and remove saccharin from its list of hazardous materials when discarded or intended to be discarded. It also proposes to amend its regulations under CERCLA to remove saccharin from its list of hazardous substances.
Saccharin is a white crystalline powder, used as an artificial sweetener that is three hundred times sweeter than sugar. Saccharin has a checkered past in terms of government regulation beginning in 1908. The USDA and the FDA tried, unsuccessfully, on many occasions to ban the substance on the basis that it is harmful to human health. Saccharin is currently treated as a hazardous material because it was believed to cause cancer in animals and humans in high concentrations.
Recently, the Calorie Control Council submitted comments to the EPA suggesting that saccharin should be removed from RCRA and CERCLA regs because it did not meet the criteria for hazardous materials. The EPA proposed to grant the Council’s petition “based on a review of the evaluations conducted by key public health agencies concerning the carcinogenic and other potential toxicological effects of saccharin and its salts, as well as EPA’s own assessment of the waste generation and management information for saccharin and its salts, which demonstrate that saccharin and its salts do not meet the criteria in the hazardous waste regulations for remaining on EPA’s lists of hazardous constituents, hazardous wastes, and hazardous substances.”
EPA will seek public comments on its proposed rule as soon as it is published in the Federal Register and will continue to receive comments until 60 days after the date of publication. To see an unofficial pre-publication copy of the proposed rule, please click here.
Click here to see the EPA's press release.
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