Saccharin and Bladder Cancer

To the Editor.—  We were interested in the comments of Kessler and Clark in The Journal on our study, "Artificial Sweeteners and Human Bladder Cancer,"1 and think it is important to correct some misapprehensions they apparently have. First, we did request information on all types of artificialsweetener use. Although the use of powders is not specifically mentioned in the probing sentence on the questionnaire, it was coded and analyzed, as was use of tablet or drop sweeteners. Second, the definition of saccharin use included those substances where brand names were not known but were described by the respondent as "saccharin." As we indicated, this casts some doubt as to whether all artificial sweeteners analyzed as "saccharin" were saccharin in the light of the continued availability of cyclamate from Canadian drugstores. It was not possible to include those persons who did not recall the amount of artificial sweetener they consumed in