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Essay On Saccharin

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Saccharin is an artificial sweetener which is commonly used to sweeten drinks as many believe that it has lower calorific values compared to sugar. The scientific name of saccharin is 2-benzothiazol-1,1,3-trione. Saccharin is used as an artificial sweetener as even though only a small amount of it is used, it is as sweet as sugar when used in large amount. This concept which leads many people to have the belief that it is healthier to use artificial sweeteners such as saccharin compared to sugar.

Saccharin was first discovered by Constantin Fahlberg, a chemist working on coal tar derivatives in the year 1897. One night, after a day of laboratory work, Fahlberg sat down to dinner. He picked up a roll with his hand and bit into a remarkably sweet crust. Fahlberg realised that he had accidentally spilled an experimental compound over his hands earlier that day. He ran back to laboratory, where he tasted everything on his worktable—all the vials, beakers, and dishes he used for his experiments. Finally he found the source: an overboiled beaker in …show more content…

However, it was not until the year 1969 where many controversy was stirred against saccharin. There are many investigations that were carried out proved that saccharin was harmful to human health. Numerous investigations on whether saccharin induces cancer or whether saccharin will cause glucose intolerance were conducted by many scientists and researchers. This eventually lead to it being labelled as a harmful item and are banned in certain places although the bans were not very effective. However, in 2010, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) removed saccharin from their list of hazardous constituents and stated that saccharin will not be considered as a potential hazard to human health. Even though the EPA states that it is safe to consume saccharin, many research show

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