Saccharin is one of the most controversial sugar substitutes in the United States today. Since 1977 it has been considered potentially carcinogenic (“Saccharin”, 1999). The sweetness of saccharin compared to sugarcane is absolutely amazing. When compared to sugarcane, saccharin is 550 times sweeter in its pure state. Furthermore, it is estimated that it has a sweetening power equal to 375 times that of sugar ("Saccharin", 2000)! This drug may be surprising, but some people say it causes a dangerous disease, cancer. In 1879, while developing new food preservatives, a young chemical research assistant at Johns Hopkins accidentally discovered that one of the organic compounds he was testing was intensely sweet. He called it “saccharum,” the Greek word for sugar. He also found that it passed through the body unchanged and was therefore a safe artificial sweetener for diabetics (Anderson, 1995). Today, similar sugar substitutes are used. Saccharin, also known as ortho-sulfur benzimide, is a white crystalline solid derived from coal tar. Their chemical formula is known as C6H4CONHSO2 (“Saccharin”, 1999). In 1977, saccharin was banned in Canada, but remained on the market in the United States (“Saccharin,” 2000). It may be legal in the United States, but warning labels are required on foods containing saccharin (“Saccharin,” 2000). In 1997, a group of scientists urged the federal agency to keep the artificial on its list of carcinogens. (CSPI, 1997). The National Toxicology Program, NTP, said that declaring saccharin as salvia “would result in increased exposure to this probable carcinogen in tens of millions of people… If saccharin were even a weak carcinogen, this unnecessary additive would pose a risk intolerable for the public, (CSPI, 1997). They believed that, although weak, it is still carcinogenic. Samuel Epstein, professor of environmental medicine at the Illinois Medical Center in Chicago, said: “In light of the numerous animal and human studies that clearly demonstrate that saccharin is a carcinogen, it is surprising that NTP is even considering consider removing saccharin from the list" (CSPI, 1997). Many other scientists today still believe and have proven that saccharin is a carcinogen (at high doses in laboratory animals), but people still use it day after day in restaurants and in their homes. Still many people are trying to remove it from the list of carcinogens. Saccharin has also been tested on many laboratory animals, particularly laboratory rats. They concluded that a high dietary dose of sodium saccharin causes urinary bladder tumors in rats (Bell, 1998).