Fact
In 1950, the FDA approved the use of cyclamates as a sweetener in everything from children's vitamins to canned ham. The approval was based on two-year feeding studies conducted by FDA scientists. In 1969, the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare (HEW) announced a ban on cyclamates. The ban was in response to tremendous public pressure and increasing evidence that cyclamates create toxic chemicals within the human body-toxic chemicals that cause birth defects, tumors, and other damage. Despite this evidence and the resulting ban, the FDA did not review its own research on cyclamates for nearly two decades. At that time it was discovered that the FDA had ignored evidence of the dangers of cyclamates.