Recent research from the Harvard School of Public Health and Sweden's Karolinska Institute found no link between consumption of acrylamide from foods and the occurrence of colon, bladder, or kidney cancers just as ACSH predicted.
As reported in the British Journal of Cancer, the Harvard/Karolinska scientists examined the dietary intake of acrylamide among 987 cancer patients, and compared it to that of 538 healthy people to see if they could find a link between the diseases and this chemical. No such link was apparent (in fact, higher levels of acrylamide in the diet were associated with lower, not higher, risk for colon cancer).
Because acrylamide is a known neurotoxin, and at very high doses an animal carcinogen, an earlier Swedish study showing unexpectedly high (but still trivial) amounts of acrylamide in food created a media stir. Even when later reports suggested no human health risks, the media reported the research with such headlines as "Crispy = Cancer" (in the New York Post). The Harvard/Karolinska study will help put the matter to rest scientifically but may not erase doubts in consumers' minds caused by the lingering memory of the earlier panic.
See Harvard's press release about the study...
http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/press/releases/press01282003.html
...as well as ACSH's press release and full report on acrylamide.
