The Delaney Anticancer Clause: A Model Environmental Protection Law

In October 1969, the artificial sweetener cyclamate was banned from sale in the United States by Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare Robert Finch. To justify his action legally Finch chose to rely'on the so-called Delaney Anticancer Clause of the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act of 1938. Consequently, the Delaney Clause, with its requirement that any substance producing cancer in animals be removed from the American food supply, became an immediate center of controversy. The Secretary himself criticized the Clause as an undue restriction on administrative decision making and as an unscientific limitation on scientific discretion.