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# Letter to editor: Ramazzini Caution
- URL: https://www.foodconsumer.org/ramazzini_caution_0722140645/
- Published: 2014-07-22T19:42:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-15T14:18:47.000Z
- Description: A letter from the Methanol Institute's chief executive disputing an earlier article on aspartame, citing a U.S. Pathology Working Group review that attributed the Ramazzini Foundation's tumor findings to respiratory disease in its rat colony.
- Author: Food Consumer
- Tags: Letter to Editor, Opinion, #vivvo-import

[http://www.foodconsumer.org /newsite/Safety/chemical/ aspartame\_can\_be\_a\_potential\_ carcinogen\_0721140644.html](https://www.foodconsumer.org/aspartame%5Fcan%5Fbe%5Fa%5Fpotential%5Fcarcinogen%5F0721140644/)

You recently posted an article about work by the Italian Ramazzini Foundation calling for the urgent consideration of aspartame as a carcinogen. Back in 2012, the US Environmental Protection Agency and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences conducted a Pathology Working Group review of cancer studies by Ramazzini of methanol and several other chemicals. The PWG reviewers found evidence of respiratory infection across the colony of rats maintained by the lab, and concluded that findings of cancerous tumors by the Ramazzini researchers were in fact misdiagnosis of lesions associated with respiratory disease. For example, where Ramazzini reported 33 cases of lymphoma in the lungs of male rats exposed to methanol, the U.S. team saw just one, and that was in a control animal. The EPA stated they would not rely on studies by Ramazzini for use in health assessments under the Integrated Risk Information System. See link below:

[http://www.epa.gov/iris/ramazzini.htm](http://www.epa.gov/iris/ramazzini.htm?ref=foodconsumer.org)

The US FDA and the European Food Safety Authority have also questioned the credibility of the Ramazzini on numerous occasions.

Hope you find this information useful for your readers.

Gregory Dolan

CEO

Methanol Institute[gdolan@methanol.org](mailto:gdolan@methanol.org)124 South West Street 10 Anson Road Avenue Jules Bordet 142Suite 203 #32-10 International Plaza 1140 Brussels, BelgiumAlexandria, VA 22314 USA Singapore 079903 [+32 276 116 59](tel:%2B32%20276%20116%2059)[+1 703 248-3636](tel:%2B1%20703%20248-3636) [+65 6325 6300](tel:%2B65%206325%206300)