From:
http://www.downtoearth.org/dtenews25/sucralose.htm
Sucralose has a molecular formula of C12H19CL3O8, which is produced by chlorinating sucrose, ordinary white table sugar. It is a five-step process discovered in 1976 by a British company, which sold it to Johnson and Johnson Company who then formed McNeil Specialty Products to commercialize sucralose. In 1998, the USFDA approved sucralose for food use and today Splenda has surpassed Equal (Nutrasweet) in dollar market share.
The human body is very good at detoxifying itself of certain substances, but this is not the case with organochlorine compounds, which are organic compounds that have been chlorinated. Dioxin, one organochlorine compound that is a by-product of the paper bleaching process, is 300,000 times more carcinogenic than DDT, an insecticide that was banned because of its toxicity. These compounds have been linked to birth defects, cancer, and immune dysfunction. These chemicals stay in the body and accumulate over time. According to the Sucralose Toxicity Information Center, the absorbed sucralose and its metabolites (chemically altered substances) concentrate in the liver, kidney, and gastrointestinal tract. Splenda manufacturers claim there is minimal absorption of Splenda and its metabolites. The FDA says there is only 11 percent to 27 percent absorption, but the Japanese Food Sanitation Council says as much as 40 percent is absorbed by the body.
According to claims by the manufacturer, the chlorine part of the sucralose molecule is similar to the chorine part of common table salt (NaCl – Sodium Chloride). Actually, using sucralose may be more like ingesting small amounts of chlorinated pesticides like DDT. More long–term independent research is needed to evaluate this safety concern.
Purity is something everyone is striving for. The FDA claims that sucralose is 98 percent pure, but what about the other 2 percent? It contains heavy metals like lead, arsenic, triphenilphosphine oxide, methanol, chlorinated disaccharides and other potentially dangerous substances.
One study on sucralose showed an increase in glycosylated hemoglobin (meaning damage to the oxygen carrying part of a red blood cell). Research in animals has shown:
1) Up to 40 percent shrinkage of the thymus gland. (Critical for the response to disease – the ‘heart’ of our immune system)
2) Enlarged liver and kidneys
3) Atrophy of lymph follicles
4) Reduced growth rate
In my opinion, not enough long-term research has been conducted on sucralose to establish its safety for human consumption. I feel our government should evaluate the use of natural substances such as stevia or lo Han fruit for use as a non-caloric sweetener. I am sure their safety would prove to be excellent.
From
http://www.organicconsumers.org/Toxic/splenda.cfm
A Something Among the Sweet Nothings
By MELANIE WARNER - New York Times
Lance Collins, the chief executive of Fuze Beverage, had planned to introduce three more flavors in the company's fast-growing line of Slenderize juice and tea drinks next year. But now, he will introduce only one.
Cadbury Schweppes will be selling two new Snapple flavors beginning in January but is rethinking what other new products it will be able to offer next year.
The problem, these companies say, is that they cannot get enough sucralose, the no-calorie artificial sweetener that has grown from a tiny piece of the sweetener market four years ago to a major player this year. In fact, sold under the brand name Splenda, its yellow packets are now more popular than the blue packets of Equal and the pink ones of Sweet'N Low.
The company that makes sucralose, Tate & Lyle of London, informed customers last month that it could not keep up with demand and that all shipments would have to be rationed on a monthly basis and calculated from past sales.
"Tate & Lyle has decided that we will not be in a position to supply any new customers effective today," Tate & Lyle's vice president for sales, Robert Turner, wrote. Because sucralose is under patent, there are no other manufacturers.
Driven by low-carb dieting and the general desire of many Americans to cut calories, sales of sucralose have skyrocketed over the last year. Its little yellow packets carry the tagline "Made from sugar so it tastes like sugar." Some consumers and health professionals have interpreted this to mean sucralose is less of a chemical than other major artificial sweeteners like aspartame (marketed as Equal and NutraSweet) or saccharin (Sweet'N Low). Dr. Arthur Agatston, a cardiologist and deviser of the South Beach Diet, has endorsed sucralose and has plugged it as "natural."
Manufacturers love it because it has at least twice the shelf life of aspartame. And unlike aspartame, it does not react to heat and can be easily used in baking and in products like yogurt and cereal that use high temperatures during their manufacture.
A Something Among the Sweet Nothings
By MELANIE WARNER - New York Times
Lance Collins, the chief executive of Fuze Beverage, had planned to introduce three more flavors in the company's fast-growing line of Slenderize juice and tea drinks next year. But now, he will introduce only one.
Cadbury Schweppes will be selling two new Snapple flavors beginning in January but is rethinking what other new products it will be able to offer next year.
The problem, these companies say, is that they cannot get enough sucralose, the no-calorie artificial sweetener that has grown from a tiny piece of the sweetener market four years ago to a major player this year. In fact, sold under the brand name Splenda, its yellow packets are now more popular than the blue packets of Equal and the pink ones of Sweet'N Low.
The company that makes sucralose, Tate & Lyle of London, informed customers last month that it could not keep up with demand and that all shipments would have to be rationed on a monthly basis and calculated from past sales.
"Tate & Lyle has decided that we will not be in a position to supply any new customers effective today," Tate & Lyle's vice president for sales, Robert Turner, wrote. Because sucralose is under patent, there are no other manufacturers.
Driven by low-carb dieting and the general desire of many Americans to cut calories, sales of sucralose have skyrocketed over the last year. Its little yellow packets carry the tagline "Made from sugar so it tastes like sugar." Some consumers and health professionals have interpreted this to mean sucralose is less of a chemical than other major artificial sweeteners like aspartame (marketed as Equal and NutraSweet) or saccharin (Sweet'N Low). Dr. Arthur Agatston, a cardiologist and deviser of the South Beach Diet, has endorsed sucralose and has plugged it as "natural."
Manufacturers love it because it has at least twice the shelf life of aspartame. And unlike aspartame, it does not react to heat and can be easily used in baking and in products like yogurt and cereal that use high temperatures during their manufacture.
The NutraSweet Company, which sells aspartame to food and beverage companies, is hitching its future to a new sweetener called neotame, which was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 2002. The chemical is far sweeter than any of its competitors, so manufacturers will need less of it to sweeten their products, resulting in a cost that is nearly half that of sucralose, according to NutraSweet's chief executive, Craig R. Petray. Mr. Petray said the first products with neotame would reach the market in the next 6 to 12 months. NutraSweet is a unit of J. W. Childs Associates.
In the meantime, Merisant hopes to take some of the air out of Splenda's success with a lawsuit filed on Nov. 26. The suit contends that McNeil's marketing is elaborately misleading and intended to trick consumers into thinking sucralose is similar to sugar. "There is no sugar in Splenda and Splenda's sweet taste does not come from sugar," the lawsuit says. "The truth is that Splenda is sweetened with a synthetic compound that is the result of a complex chemical process."
Two weeks later, on Dec. 10, the Sugar Association also fired a legal shot at McNeil, filing a lawsuit contending that McNeil has "positioned Splenda to compete in the market for wholesome, natural sweeteners, like sugar, molasses and honey." Tate & Lyle is not mentioned in either lawsuit because it has not been involved in Splenda's marketing.
According to the McNeil Web site, sucralose is made by adding chlorine to sugar. Aspartame is not made from sugar but from two amino acids that are isolated from bacteria. Saccharin is produced from a combination of the flavor chemical methyl anthranilate and ammonia.
McNeil officials said they thought the suit had no merit. "We never represented our product as being natural, only that it is made from sugar," said a McNeil spokeswoman, Monica Neufang. NutraSweet said it was not involved in Merisant's lawsuit.
Not everybody has been so taken by sucralose. Whole Foods Market decided four years ago to remove all products containing sucralose from its stores. Margaret Wittenberg, vice president of marketing and public affairs at Whole Foods, said that she was skeptical of the safety of sucralose and that the product did not fit into the company's philosophy of promoting "real food."
Ms. Wittenberg notes that no long-term human studies have yet been conducted on sucralose and that the 172 studies done so far have been financed by Tate & Lyle, McNeil or organizations representing them. Whole Foods also does not carry products containing aspartame, which has been mired in safety concerns on and off since it was introduced in the early 1980's, or saccharine, which for 20 years carried a warning label that it could cause cancer. That label was removed four years ago after new studies.
David L. Katz, a nutrition specialist who is a professor at the Yale School of Public Health, said he had a problem with all sugar substitutes. He said studies had shown that they did nothing to curb sugar cravings and might even cause overeating. "If people really care about eating healthy, they would consume less processed food and eat things like vegetables, fruit, legumes and fish," he said. Ms. Neufang, of McNeil, said that sucralose was safe and that it had been deemed so by the F.D.A.
Pepsi has said that it will reintroduce its no-calorie soda Pepsi One next year with the sweetener, and Beverage Digest has reported that Coke will also offer a sucralose-sweetened drink.
Please Scroll Down to See Forums Below 
