Human protection against non-genotoxic carcinogens in the US without the Delaney Clause.

Cancers of many types are major chronic diseases with a high fatality rate and a high cost to society. In the USA, the Delaney Clause was implemented in 1958 because the public believed that many cancers stem from food additives and food contaminants. In the intervening years, research has provided key information about the mechanisms of carcinogenesis and demonstrated that there are two major classes of carcinogens, genotoxic and non-genotoxic. Two case reports are presented, of sodium saccharin and ethylenebisdithiocarbamates that were banned based on the Delaney Clause in an unjustified manner, based on the underlying mechanisms not relevant for non-genotoxic carcinogens. Also, the causes of major cancers have been discovered. Most cancers are associated with lifestyle, specifically tobacco and excessive alcohol use, inappropriate nutritional traditions, and lack of exercise. These lifestyle components involve now known genotoxic carcinogens and importantly, non-genotoxic carcinogens. The effect of non-genotoxic carcinogens is highly dose dependent and also reversible upon lowering the dose below a threshold. Thus, it is quite possible to lower human cancer risk, and also the risk of related chronic diseases such as coronary heart disease, hypertension and stroke, adult on-set diabetes, by proper lifestyle adjustments. Clearly, the Delaney Clause plays no role in disease prevention.