*****************************************************************************
To get more information on aspartame, email betty at pd.org as follows:
Subject: sendme help
The subject line must be typed exactly like the above line.
Betty Martini 1. Take the 60-day No-Aspartame test
Mission Possible and send us your case history.
5950-H State Bridge Rd 2. Tell your doctor and your friends.
Suite 215 3. Return Aspar-Poisoned foods to the store.
Duluth GA 30155 USA (Nutrasweet(tm), Equal(tm), Spoonful(tm), etc)
Visit http://www.dorway.com/possible.html with links to more than 25 other Web Sites
We are dedicated to the proposition that we will not be satisfied until death
and disability are no longer considered an acceptable cost of business.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 7 Mar 1997 17:42:52 -0500
From: Betty Martini <betty at noel.pd.org>
Newsgroups: bionet.neuroscience
Subject: Aspartame/Brain Tumors - Original Studies, Part 2
Why has world renowned Dr. John Olney asked for further studies? Could it
be because the original studies were a disaster and the manufacturers of
aspartame have resisted any more testing? Senator Howard Metzenbaum who
investigated the aspartame issue and the problems arising in the
population wrote a bill that would have required independent testing by
the National Institute of Health and put a moratorium on aspartame. It
would have required studies to investigate some of neurological problems
then being complained about back in l985 when aspartame was only in a few
hundred products not 9000 and climbing with an expired patent. Heavy
lobbying by Monsanto prevented the bill from getting out of committee.
Dr. H. J. Roberts in his letter in Lancet in February went a little
further than requesting new studies being accomplished. He said: "I have
documented other severe neuropsychiatric reactions to aspartame products -
most notably headache, seizures, confusion and depression, and the
probable acceleration of Alzheimer's disease by aspartame products. I
believe that our society faces a preventable medical disaster if aspartame
products are not promptly removed from public use." Dr. Roberts has
written on the brain tumor issue for years and has authored books on the
dangers of aspartame.
There have been independent studies on aspartame over the years, not
funded by the manufacturer. Dr. Ralph Walton on 60 Minutes on Dec 29 said
that out of 90 independent studies 83 showed a problem with aspartame.
During Congressional Hearings on aspartame a document was discussed titled
CONFIDENTIAL TRADE SECRET INFORMATION, Food and Drug Sweetener Strategy,
12/28/70. In the concluding paragraph it says: "we have no way of
estimating maximum likely abuse and hence need to utilize data based on
almost complete conversion to DKP. If we include this .. we stand a good
chance of ending up with nothing.."
Diketopiperazine (DKP) is a BRAIN TUMOR AGENT.
With regard to the studies, Dr. Jacqueline Verrett, a former FDA
toxicologist and member of an FDA task force that investigated the
authenticity of research done by Searle to establish the safety of
aspartame, said she believes the original aspartame studies were "built on
a foundation of sand". (Testimony of Dr. Jacqueline Verrett, FDA
toxicologist, before the US Senate Committee on Labor and Human Resources,
regarding "NutraSweet Health and Safety Concerns, 11/3/87)
Dr. Verrett testified that flawed tests conducted by SEarle - used as the
basis of FDA approval - were a "disaster" and should have been "thrown
out". She said she believed the studies left many unanswered questions
about possible birth defects and the safety of aspartame. Verrett said
the team was instructed not to be concerned with, or comment upon, the
overall validity of the study. She said a subsequent review discarded or
ignored the problems and deficiencies outlined by her team's original
report. She said, "serious departures from acceptable toxicological
protocols" that her investigative team noted in the reevaluation of these
studies were also discounted. Verrett concluded the data in the study was
worthless, and the safety of aspartame and its breakdown products have
therefore not been determined.
She emphasized that aspartame exists in the market place without basic
toxicity information. She said there are no data to assess the
interactions with DKP, excess phenylalanine, other aspartame metabolites,
additives, drugs, or other chemicals. She elaborated on DKP problems,
including significant increases of uterine polyps and changes in blood
cholesterol. DKP is formed when liquids in particular are pre-sweetened
with aspartame. The production of DKP is vulnerable to increase in
temperature, and higher temperatures produce increasing amounts of DKP.
She reminded members of Congress "that is why initially, aspartame was
not intended or not planned to be used in liquids because of this
decomposition.. it was decided it was too unstable to be used in hot
preparations, hot liquids, and also in diet drinks."
On January 10, l977, FDA chief counsel, Richard Merrill, sent a 33 page
letter to U.S. Attorney Skinner repeating the request for the grand jury
investigation "into apparent violations of the Federal Food, Drug and
Cosmetic Act. . and False Reports to the Government Act .. by G. D.
Searle.
The letter charged that SEarle concealed material facts and made false
statements in reports of animal studies conducted to establish the safety
of aspartame. Studies cited for investigation had been conducted in l972
and five year statues of limitation for criminal prosecution were due to
expire on 10/10 and 12/8/77. U. S. Attorney Sam Skinner went to work for
Searle's law firm, Sidley and Austin, and the statue of limitations ran
out.
The FDA task force observed laboratory methods at Searle from April 25 to
August 4, l977. The Bressler Report (named for team leader Jerome
Bressler) identified major discrepancies including "substantial
differences between gross observation on pathology sheets when compared
with those submitted to the FDA" in a rat toxicology test of aspartame.
(FDA, Bressler Report, Investigation of Searle Laboratories, 8/7/77)
According to the Bressler Report, one rat even appeared resurrected. It
stated: "Observed records indicated that animal A23LM was alive at week
88, dead from week 92 to week 104, alive at week 108, and dead at week
112."
The actual meal fed to the rats was also in question. Raymond Schroeder,
a former SEarle employee, said in an FDA interview on July 13, l977 that
"the particles of DKP were large enough to allow the rats to discriminate
between the DKP and the basal diet."
Dr. John Olney, psychiatrist, neuropathologist and professor at Washington
University in St. Louis, found 12 brain tumors in 320 dosed rats and none
in 120 control rats when he examined FDA files on aspartame animal studies
in l978. Olney advised that the high number of brain tumors was unusual.
Olney voiced another concern based on his research. He showed that when
glutamate and aspartic acid are ingested together each agent augments the
neurotoxic effects of the other.
Olney, along with consumer activist attorney James Turner, initiated court
action over aspartame. In a l986 interview Turner said he had spent 15
years battling approval of aspartame because "its hurting people".
The late Dr. M. Adrian Gross, an FDA toxicologist, spoke out against
aspartame in the August 1, l985 Congressional Record. Gross, who took
part in on site investigations at Searle laboratories, said the studies
carried out by Searle to show the safety of aspartame were "to a large
extent unreliable." He said "at least one of those studies has
established beyond any reasonable doubt that aspartame is capable of
inducing brain tumors in experimental animals and that this .. is of
extremely high significance." (Congressional Record SID835:131 Aug 1,
l985)
Gross also testified that because aspartame was capable of producing brain
tumors and brain cancer, FDA should not have been able to set an allowable
daily intake of the substance at any level.
He said at least one of Searle's "has established beyond any reasonable
doubt that aspartame is capable of inducing brain tumors in experimental
animals and that this predisposition of it is of extremely high
significance... In view of these indications that the cancer causing
potential of aspartame is a matter that has been established way beyond
any reasonable doubt, one can ask: What is the reason for the apparent
refusal by the FDA to invoke for this food additive the so-called Delaney
Amendment to the Food, Drug an Cosmetic Act?"
The Delaney Amendment makes it illegal to allow any residues of cancer
causing chemicals in foods. In his concluding testimony Gross asked,
"Given the (cancer causing potential of aspartame) how would the FDA
justify its position that it views a certain amount of aspartame as
constituting an allowable daily intake or 'safe' level of it? Is that
position in effect not equivalent to setting a 'tolerance' for this food
additive and thus a violation of that law? And if the FDA itself elects
to violate the law, who is left to protect the health of the public?"
H.R. 3200 just repealed the Delaney Amendment and in June the FDA at the
request of the NutraSweet Co. (Monsanto) gave blanket approval to this
neurotoxin without public notification. Dr. Kessler of the FDA who
approved it then recently resigned and left office. Aspartame was
approved in l981 by Dr. Arthur Hull Hayes when he over-ruled a Board of
inquiry and went to work for Searle's PR firm. He refused to talk to the
press for over 10 years and refused recently to be interviewed by 60
Minutes.
When the NutraSweet Company tells you aspartame has been proven safe,
remember that these are the studies that approved it. This is the myth of
the most tested additive in history. Monsanto funds the trade
organizations, the AMA and Congress. Petitions to ban aspartame have
failed in the past. Monsanto has great power and the FDA has great
loyalty to them. When Dr. Olney's report made world news the NutraSweet
Co. attempted to defend their product and the FDA went to their defense.
The brochure touting the safety of aspartame and its components is on Dave
Rietz web page, email address below, and it has been answered by Mark
Gold. Mission Possible reports are http://www.dorway.com/possible.html
Dave Rietz' web page links to 29 other web pages including Mark Gold's.
See part 3, for further aspartame information, and the FDA report of
symptoms attributable to this neurotoxin.
Betty Martini
Mission Possible
*****************************************************************************
To get more information on aspartame, email betty at pd.org as follows:
Subject: sendme help The subject line must be typed exactly like the above
line. Betty Martini 1. Take the 60-day No-Aspartame test Mission
Possible and send us your case history. 5950-H State Bridge Rd 2. Tell
your doctor and your friends. Suite 215 3. Return Aspar-Poisoned foods
to the store. Duluth GA 30155 USA (Nutrasweet(tm), Equal(tm),
Spoonful(tm), etc)
Visit http://www.dorway.com with links to more than 25 other Web Sites
We are dedicated to the proposition that we will not be satisfied until death
and disability are no longer considered an acceptable cost of business.
