Aspartame in Diet Drinks linked to Airline Crash

[Guest guest]

Aspartame in Diet Drinks linked to Airline Crash

JoAnn Guest

Jan 08, 2004 17:42 PST

--

Two-hundred fifty miles off the east coast of the United States,

35,000 feet over the Atlantic Ocean, the early afternoon weather is

clear and a jetstream tailwind speeds Transglobal Airlines Flight

901* toward New York's Kennedy International Airport. In the cockpit

of 901 the captain straps on his oxygen mask as per FAA regulations

because the co-pilot has left the right seat to tend to a biological

need.

 

Just before the pilot straps on the mask, however, he takes a large

gulp from an aluminum can, finishing off a diet soda--the only thing

he has put in his stomach since breakfast.

 

" Kennedy approach, TransGlobal Flight 901 " says the Captain as he

contacts Kennedy's Air Route Traffic Control Center.

" TransGlobal 901, Kennedy approach, go ahead, " the controller

responds.

" Kennedy, 901 inbound, flight level three-five-zero, " the pilot

replies, " two-five-zero miles east, request approach instructions. "

" 901, Kennedy. Squawk three-two-zero-one. "

" 901, roger, " responds the pilot as he switches his transponder to

the designated numbers.

A few minutes pass, then, " 901, Kennedy " the controller calls.

No response.

" 901, Kennedy. "

Again, no reply.

" TransGlobal 901, this is Kennedy approach, we have you on a

descending right turn passing through flight level two-seven-zero.

Climb and maintain three-five-zero, heading two-five-five degrees

until further instructed. "

No response.

" 901, this is Kennedy approach. Come in. "

Nothing.

" 901, Kennedy we have you descending through flight level two-zero-

zero at 4,000 feet per minute. Correct, climb and maintain three-

five-zero. "

Further silence is followed by several more attempts by the

controller to contact the airliner.

 

Then:

" Any aircraft in the vicinity of TransGlobal 901, this is Kennedy

approach, we have lost 901 from transponder and ground radar. Please

advise if you have radar contact or a visual on 901. "

In this scenario, the pilot consumed on an empty stomach, a

diet soda containing the artificial sweetener aspartame, [a.k.a.

NutraSweet, Equal, et al]. Shortly thereafter, the captain

experiences a grand mal seizure, a kind of brain electrical short-

circuiting, rendering him unconsciousand causing the aircraft to

descend into the Atlantic Ocean.

 

On September 8, 1994, US Air Flight 427, a Boeing

737-300, crashed while maneuvering to land at Pittsburgh

International Airport. All 132 persons on board were killed. The

Associated Press (AP) reported that Flight 427's cockpit voice

recorder indicates " the flight was routine until the final seconds.

 

" Capt. Peter Germano, " the AP report continued, " sips a cranberry

orange juice and Diet Sprite drink ten minutes before the crash.... "

 

Coincidence?

 

THE FLIGHT OF CAPTAIN HAROLD WILSON

 

THE INCIDENT:

 

At approximately 4:00 p.m. on August 13, 1987 Harold Wilson, an

Australian-born pilot flying for the Alaska commuter airline

Peninsula Airways, was approximately 1,000 miles out of Anchorage at

10,000 feet headed west over the Bering Sea. Captain Wilson was

ferrying

charterpassengers to a fishing fleet en route to Atka, the most

remote of inhabited islands in the Aleutian archipelago, when his

life in a moment of time was changed forever.

 

Capt. Wilson told The WINDS that with absolutely no warning whatever

he went totally unconscious, his brain shutting off like a

switch. " The first thing I recall was waking up afterwards, " Capt.

Wilson said, " and the passengers were wondering what in the world

was going on.

 

They thought I'd had a heart attack.

 

" I was still gripping the aircraft's controls, " Wilson

recalled, " and had collapsed over the throttles disengaging the

autopilot. " The turboprop commuter plane then began a nose-down

tight left turn corkscrewing toward the water two miles below. The

first indication the passengers had that something wasn't right was

when they heard the loud squeal from the autopilot's disengagement

alarm.

They then rushed to the cockpit, Wilson remarked, upsetting further

the airplane's forward center of gravity which exacerbated and

steepened their spiraling dive to the Bering Sea. By the time Capt.

Wilson regained consciousness, they had plunged from 10,000 to less

than 1500 feet.

 

Wilson, a former flight instructor and aircraft engineer, was told

that by the time one of the passengers had gained control of the

plane, the airspeed indicator needle was buried off the dial well

past the red line or " never exceed speed " which is likely to cause

structural damage or even airframe failure. The passenger who took

control of the plane, a non-pilot (who referred to the control wheel

as " handlebars " in the FAA

report) had never sat in the front seat of an aircraft before but

managed to use the radio to ask for help. Wilson had preset the

radio to Adak Navy Approach Control and a Navy P3 Orion patrol plane

that was in the vicinity responded and was able to effectively

instruct the passenger in halting the aircraft's dive.

 

" By the passengers' accounts, I was out for about ten to twenty

minutes.

 

My first remembrance was kind of slowly waking up afterwards, " Capt.

Wilson said. " I didn't know what in the world had gone on. I just

thought I'd dozed off--or hoped that's all it was. They had me

propped up against the bulkhead still in the left seat. "

 

THE PRECURSOR:

 

" The first indications of a problem I had was eight to ten months

before the seizure event, " Capt. Wilson explained.

 

" I was experiencing unusual smell sensations, auras. If I was

around some strong chemicals, paint thinners and so forth, I would

smell them for like a week afterward, and I knew that wasn't right. "

The doctors Wilson consulted at that time, prior to the aircraft

incident, could not tell him what was causing the

smell-aura sensation. " Then about four or five months afterward I

had the in-flight seizure. "

 

Captain Wilson was featured, with others, on the television programs

" Hard Copy " and the Australian and American " 60 Minutes " productions

about aspartame. The physicians in Alaska who examined Capt. Wilson

were

unable to determine the cause of his seizure and he was sent to a

neurology specialist at Seattle's Virginia Mason Hospital. When the

neurologist was told of the strange smell-auras, he immediately

recognized them as a definite precursor to seizure activity.

 

THE APPARENT CAUSE:

 

The former airline pilot is of the firm belief that the consumption

of the artificial sweetener aspartame was the cause of his seizure.

When

asked what led up to his making that connection he said that he had

been made aware of a " Pilot's Hotline " dealing with aspartame-

related incidents and specific research into neurological problems

attributed to the substance.

 

He admitted to consuming large quantities of the

sweetener in his coffee and other foods via the brand name Equal.

 

Previously to this incident, Capt. Wilson had been in perfect

health,

which is necessary to maintain the first-class medical certificate

required to fly commercial passenger aircraft. By the time he was

convinced to stop his intake of aspartame, he was already on an

anti-seizure medication but was still experiencing the strange

smell-aura sensations. Following the aircraft incident, he

experienced

yet another seizure while still on his medication--and still using

aspartame.

 

After he stopped using the sweetener, the smell-auras

stopped. " I stayed off the stuff for about six months, " Wilson said,

" and then I started using it again and the smell-auras came back

immediately. That, " Capt. Wilson concluded, " was proof positive for

me. "

 

There are a multitude of other instances where aspartame sweetened

beverages appear to be connected with aircraft pilot mishaps--far

too many to be carelessly dismissed as merely apocryphal or

anecdotal. Capt.

Wilson also told The WINDS of other instances involving pilots that

he says bear a potentially strong connection with the use of

products containing aspartame.

 

" I'm personally acquainted with a pilot who was a captain for United

on a 737. He was on short final into Portland airport about one year

ago and experienced a seizure. He blames it on aspartame, " Wilson

said.

" Fortunately he had a co-pilot. " " I also know of a pilot in Texas I

have spoken with a few times. He was a captain for Continental

Airlines and he had a seizure, but it was on the ground. He was in

the military

reserves on a training exercise and woke up in the hospital--which

was, of course, the end of his flying career. " That pilot was

Captain Haynes Dunn.

 

Captain Dunn, a former Navy pilot, told The WINDS that his ordeal

began when he decided to trim a few pounds and started using diet

drinks and the dieting supplement Slimfast which also contains

aspartame.

 

" About a week after I began, I started having insomnia and

headaches and I went two straight weeks with an average of three

hours or less of sleep a night.

 

It all culminated, " Capt. Dunn said, " in my having a grand mal

seizure in front of about 200 people in the naval reserve. I was

faced with an FAA flight physical at the time and the questionnaires

you fill

out ask you about those things. " When Capt. Dunn informed his flight

surgeon about the incident, he was immediately grounded.

 

" My whole life was changed in a heartbeat, " he recalled. " And about

that

time I got a call from another pilot who said, 'By chance are you

drinking diet sodas?' " The fellow pilot informed Capt. Dunn of

information indicating that " that stuff can cause seizures. " Dunn

passed

if off as unimportant attributing his problem to fatigue due to lack

of

sleep. What began to convince the pilot there might be something to

the

idea was when he was given a video tape entitled, " Is Aviation

Safety

Jeopardized by NutraSweet? " The video was produced by the Christian

Broadcasting Network (CBN) with Pat Robertson and in it, Dunn said,

there was presented " a litany of symptoms " most of which he was

experiencing.

 

" This was too coincidental, " Capt. Dunn observed. " Here I've got

seventeen years in the Navy--seventeen years of flight physicals--

where

I was screened specifically for epilepsy. I had no family history of

epilepsy, and all these various side effects they listed--none of

that

happened " until the six months following the use of aspartame-

containing

products. Dunn eventually refused to take the anti-seizure medicine

Dilantin but has still had no seizure recurrence--and no

reinstatement

of his medical certificate by the FAA.

 

When Capt. Dunn contacted a Los Angeles physician about the

possibility

of flying for an Australian airline, that doctor informed him

that " in

his [the doctor's] opinion NutraSweet was the second leading cause

of

pilots losing their medical certificates. " That same physician told

Dunn

that the then head of the FAA's Aeromedical Certification Branch,

Audie

Davis, said " we know it's a big problem but our hands are tied. Our

sister organization, the FDA, said it's safe, therefore, we can't

put

out a letter to airmen telling them not to use it. "

 

Interestingly, Dunn told The WINDS, immediately after allowing the

TV

program " Hard Copy " to film him in a segment on aspartame, he was

fired

from his non-flight position at Continental for a minor violation of

FAA

regulations and was denied the customary recourse to review and

appeal.

The FAA subsequently cleared Capt. Dunn of any wrongdoing, but

Continental has not reinstated him.

 

In 1987 the U.S. Senate's Labor and Human Resources Committee

conducted

hearings regarding aspartame. Chaired by Ohio Senator Howard

Metzenbaum,

the committee heard testimony on the questionable safety of the

substance. " One of those to testify was Air Force Major Michael

Collings, 35, " says a report in Aviation Medical Bulletin.[1] " He

indicated that he had experienced tremors and seizures...which he

had

correlated with his intake of two diet sodas and three quarts per

day of

lemon-flavored Kool Aid sweetened with NutraSweet. An enthusiastic

runner, he had experienced no medical problems when stationed at a

remote Korean air base with no access to NutraSweet. However,

ingestion

of Crystal Lite soda, purchased at Korea's Osan air base, triggered

tremors. On October 4, 1985, at Las Vegas' Nellis air base, his

seizure

occurred approximately two hours after he flew his F-16 jet. "

 

Collings' father informed him of the link between the sweetener and

seizures and after ceasing the intake of any aspartame, he remained

free

of neurological problems for a period of time before his physician

finally placed him on the anti-seizure medication Dilantin. It was

because of such pilot-related incidents like the foregoing that

Major

Collings approached Mary Nash Stoddard with the idea of creating a

Pilot's Hotline after the two of them presented testimony at the 3rd

Senate Hearing on the Safety of Aspartame in November of 1987.

 

Mrs. Stoddard, a former Texas State Judge, consumer food safety

advocate

and member of the President's Council on Food Safety, is founder of

ACSN

the Aspartame Consumer Safety Network** and one of only three

individuals qualified as an expert medical witness in giving court

testimony on the health effects of aspartame. She has also lectured

at

the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School's Continuing

Education program. Since Stoddard initiated the Pilot's Hotline in

1988,

it has received over a thousand pilot-related calls concerning the

effects of aspartame. " Pilot-related " meaning that often it is wives

or

relatives placing the calls simply because the pilots themselves are

afraid to do so.

 

When considering the number of responses to the hotline, a pilot's

extreme reticence to expose himself to FAA scrutiny must be taken

into

account. A commercial pilot has undergone years of training to place

him

in the cockpit of any passenger aircraft. The pilot's license is

valid

for a lifetime, but the medical certificate, in the case of

passenger

pilots, must be renewed yearly. That certificate can be pulled by

the

FAA at the least hint of seizures or potential dysfunction on the

part

of the pilot, and his career can thus be summarily ended--as were

those

of Harold Wilson, Haynes Dunn, Michael Collings and others. As a

result

of this hard reality, Stoddard assures them of strict

confidentiality.

 

A PHYSICIAN / SCIENTIST'S PERSPECTIVE

 

" I knew there was something wrong with aspartame, but I could not

quite

put my finger on it, " begins the foreward by the highly respected

pediatrician Dr. Lendon Smith in a 250-page book entitled " Deadly

Deception - Story of Aspartame. " [2] The book, written and compiled

by

Mary Nash Stoddard, is undisputedly the most damning single

repository

of evidence available that the artificial sweetener aspartame is

toxic

to many and even deadly to some.

 

Dr. Smith, himself no lightweight hitter in the medical arena, has

been

the focus of a feature article in Life Magazine, has made more than

60

appearances on the old Johnny Carson Show, twenty on Phil Donahue,

received an Emmy Award for excellence in programming, participated

in

ABC Television's " The Children's Doctor " series and other ABC

specials

about medicine. With a drive that would make a hummingbird appear

comatose, Dr. Smith has authored 16 books dealing with medicine,

primarily oriented toward children, with one occupying The New York

Times best seller list for six months. His most recent and currently

his

most well known book is " How to Raise a Healthy Child " . Dr. Smith

has

appeared on Good Morning America, the Today Show, Oprah Winfrey,

Sally

Jessy Raphael, Regis and Kathy Lee, Merv Griffin and Mike Douglas

and at

age 77 is retired from a full professorship in pediatrics from the

University of Oregon Medical School.

 

Not incidentally, Dr. Smith's license to practice medicine was

revoked,

he asserts, because he dared to step out of the realm of allopathic

medicine and prescribe natural rather than drug-based treatment. One

other such incidence was chronicled in a previous WINDS article and

the

list of MDs who have experienced such governmental wrath is long and

growing.

 

In his foreward to Stoddard's book Dr. Smith noted that reports

indicate

aspartame is responsible for a witch's brew of maladies. Among those

" five deaths and at least 92 different symptoms have resulted from

its

use. The list includes neurological, dermatological, cardiac,

respiratory...all the symptoms I have ever seen reported for food

sensitivities, low blood sugar, Alzheimer's, chronic fatigue

syndrome,

amalgam-filling disease and methanol poisoning. The Searle

Pharmaceutical Company, " Dr. Smith continues, " has actually covered

up

or, at the very least, failed to report adverse reactions just so

the

FDA would allow this product to be used by millions worldwide. "

 

A LEGACY OF " JUNK SCIENCE " AND FEDERAL ADMINISTRATIVE MALFEASANCE

 

" The thing that bugs me is that people think the Food and Drug

Administration is protecting them -- it isn't. What the FDA is doing

and

what the public thinks it's doing are as different as night and

day. "

--Dr. Herbert L. Ley, former Commissioner of the FDA.

 

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), it seems, has turned a

blind eye to strong, perhaps overwhelming, evidence of bad and even

falsified research upon which they based their approval for a

potentially deadly substance added to America's food supply.

Aspartame,

a three-part molecule composed of aspartic acid, phenylalanine and

methanol (wood alcohol), was discovered accidentally in the mid

1960s at

G.D. Searle, the large Chicago pharmaceuticals company who was

trying to

develop it as an ulcer drug. After the discovery, Searle was bought

out

by the chemical giant Monsanto which then created the subsidiary

NutraSweet/Kelco.

 

Mrs. Stoddard claims in her book that an astounding 78 percent of

all

non-pharmaceutical related complaints registered with the FDA

concern

aspartame's adverse reactions.[3] When the FDA approved it for human

consumption in 1974, it went against a body of evidence so enormous

as

to stagger the credulity of virtually any thinking person. " What

most

consumers don't know, " says Mike Wallace of CBS's " 60 Minutes, " " is

that

aspartame's approval was one of the most contested in FDA history.

Consumers have reported more than 7,000 adverse reactions to the

FDA,

ranging from dizziness to headaches to seizures. " [4]

 

Mary Nash Stoddard told The WINDS that " a representative from the

Food

and Drug Administration reported on CBS television in 1995 that the

FDA

had received only six complaints involving saccharin. Imagine! Six.

And,

for this, anything containing saccharin has to have the 'causes

cancer'

stigma attached on all its labels. " FDA called a 'moratorium' on

breast

implants, " Stoddard continued, " even though Dr. Kessler said six

times

in his press conference, 'We don't know if silicone breast implants

cause harm, but we want to err on the side of caution.' " Why don't

they

do that for aspartame, " she asks, " the most complained about food

additive in history. There were no deaths attributed to breast

implants

- no double-blind tests showing harm - no empirical data showing

harm "

Stoddard adds. " Yet, they chose to call the moratorium anyway.

Where's

the justice in that? "

 

WELL...WHAT ARE CONSUMERS BEING TOLD TODAY?

 

Just two weeks ago in the February 8, 1999 issue of Time magazine,

columnist Christine Gorman takes to task those who distribute

information claiming aspartame is anything but perfectly safe. Her

article, entitled " A Web of Deceit " takes the rather media-typical

approach used by those who desire to discredit a particular issue

without having to actually present a serious body of evidence to

back it

up. That approach is to lump a series of clearly absurd tales of

what

some products have been purported to do and include with them the

issue

upon which one wishes to cast fatal discredit. Such a story, in

hyperbole, might be that Elvis was kidnapped by aliens and fed

Reese's

Pieces until he " transmorphed " into Monica Lewinsky--and aspartame

causes health problems too. One lends its incredibility to the other

by

mere association.

 

The Time article begins by debunking something that truly needed to

be

debunked; that being a widely circulated e-mail purported to have

been

written by a " Nancy Markle " (no one seems to know who she is). That

e-mail glues together a hodge-podge of fairy tales connected to some

truths about aspartame. This " guilt by association " scenario Gorman

uses

to discolor what appear to be strong realities about aspartame. Ms.

Gorman draws from only a single study that claims to discredit myths

about the health risks of the sweetener. But what is clearly lacking

in

the piece is any reference to the mountain of credible research data

obtained by equally credible world renowned scientists. Data that

indicate a very clear link between the artificial sweetener and

numerous

medical disorders. The only research cited by the Time author quotes

an

investigation conducted at Duke University by Dr. Susan Shiffman

that

looked at people who were " aspartame sensitive " and supposedly

experiencing headaches triggered by the substance. Gorman says

that " a

little probing often revealed the real trouble. One woman, " she

said,

" who often ate peanuts with her diet soda, was allergic to peanuts. "

 

What Ms. Gorman fails to note in her article is that the Duke study

took

place at the University's G.D. Searle Center (name sound familiar?).

" The Searle Center is under the office of the University Vice-

President

William Anylan, a former Searle Director. " Dr. Schiffman, not

incidentally, is a former Searle consultant and her study was funded

by--guess who--Searle.[5]

 

Had Time bothered to check, they would have discovered that the

Schiffman study has been shot so full of holes one could not sift

trucks

from a parking lot with it. Omitted from the article were results of

tests conducted at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Emory

University School of Medicine and the Cleveland Clinic Foundation

and

published in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM).[6] Those

studies specifically addressed Dr. Shiffman's research.

 

" ...Consumer complaints and survey data support the role of

aspartame as

a dietary trigger of headaches... " one study concluded. " We believe

that

the study of Schiffman et al had some serious flaws and did not

reflect

the realities of migraine due to dietary factors, " says another.

" ...Their experimental design was flawed in such a way that their

negative results in no way support their conclusion that 'aspartame

is

no more likely to produce headache than placebo.' " " ...It would seem

reasonable to expect the authors [of the Schiffman study] to review

the

literature when concluding that a known neurotoxin, L-phenylalanine

[a

component of the aspartame molecule], has no effect on headache. " [7]

Apparently, the authors of the Schiffman study conducted no such

review.

 

One researcher published in the NEJM went so far as to strongly

suggest

the possibility that a serious conflict exists between good

scientific

investigation and self-interest in Schiffman's studies. " The

NutraSweet

Company, which supported this experimental design, " he said, " may

have

had an interest in protocols that would find that their product had

no

untoward effects. " Short form: NutraSweet quite possibly designed

the

tests to show that aspartame was safe.

 

The medical journal Neurology, among the most distinguished of world

research publications, published a study prompted by " reports of

increased seizures in humans after ingestion of aspartame. " The

study

entitled " Aspartame exacerbates EEG spike-wave discharge in children

with generalized absence epilepsy: a double-blind controlled

study " [8]

was conducted at the IWK Children's Hospital in Halifax, Nova

Scotia.

That research produced significant and ominous findings. Examining

children with " newly diagnosed but untreated generalized absence

seizures " they were fed sucrose (table sugar) sweetened drinks on

one

day and aspartame sweetened beverages the other. During the course

of

the study while recording the children's EEGs (brain-wave

activities),

it was discovered that " following aspartame compared with sucrose,

the

number of spike-wave discharges per hour and mean length of spike-

wave

discharges increased... Aspartame appears to exacerbate the amount

of

EEG spike-wave in children with absence seizures. " In all, the

scientists recorded an average increase of 40 percent of those

seizure-type brain waves when the children consumed aspartame.

 

Epileptic or grand mal seizures can be described as an electrical

storm

in the brain that totally disables the victim until it runs its

course.

Absence seizures, also known as petite mals, are a less violent form

that manifest a brief, total loss of awareness. That electrical

storm in

miniature is characterized by increased " spike-wave " EEG activity,

identical to that produced in the children after the ingestion of

aspartame. The term " absence seizure " is just what it implies; the

victim appears to be absent, or not present. It does not require an

IQ

greater than one's sleeve length to determine that an airline pilot

who

is suddenly absent or somewhere else than the cockpit presents a

clear

and present danger to his passengers.

 

The Halifax researchers also warned that other credible studies have

indicated aspartame " might be a proconvulsant, lowering the

threshold

for chemically induced convulsions. " The scientists also recommended

that certain children avoid the intake of aspartame. Time's

columnist

Gorman, stating the obvious by use of superlatives, declares

that " just

as no single chemical cures everything, none causes everything. "

 

It has been aspartame's best defense that it shows itself in so many

varied symptoms and maladies. When seeking evidence of pathology, a

multitude of expressions are usually not expected nor given much

credibility. It is seldom the case, however, that a toxic substance

creates only a single negative effect. Like the drinking water

additive

fluoride, aspartame gives strong evidence of being a systemic poison

that causes an abundance of dysfunctional and pathological effects

in

the human central nervous system, none of which at any given time is

easily attributable to it.

 

Dr. Russell Blaylock, M.D., a noted neurosurgeon and associate

professor

at the University of Mississippi Medical Center is the author of the

book " Excitotoxins: The Taste that Kills " . During his sixteen- year

practice Dr. Blaylock has authored numerous scientific papers and

contributed to medical text books. The title page of Blaylock's book

Excitotoxins subtitles the work:

 

" How Monosodium Glutamate, Aspartame (NutraSweet) and Similar

Substances

can Cause Harm to the Brain and Nervous System and their

Relationship to

Neurodegenerative Diseases such as Alzheimer's, Lou Gehrig's Disease

(ALS) and Others. "

 

Dr. Blaylock cites a multitude of studies (nearly 500 footnoted

references) among which are those that specifically point to the

neurotoxicity of aspartame. The one study he cites that showed no

connection between aspartame and seizures was funded by none other

than--surprise--the NutraSweet company. It should be noted that with

nearly all the studies showing a connection between aspartame and

neurological problems the main culprit is thought to be a blood

level

rise of the amino acid L-phenylalanine. An ominous finding in the

research is that it was found that " rats require twice the dose and

mice

seven times the dose of aspartame as humans require to produce the

same

increase in plasma phenylalanine. " [9] By empirical reasoning this

would

seem to make humans two to seven times more sensitive to the

chemical

than the test animals. " In one study, " Blaylock says, " the blood

phenylalanine levels [in humans] rose thirty fold following a one

gram

dose of aspartame. " The neurosurgeon/scientist, however, believes

that

the effect of aspartame on brain seizures is " likely...the direct

excitatory effect of the aspartate itself " --aspartate or aspartic

acid

being one of the constituent molecules of aspartame.

 

Dr. Blaylock includes in his commentary about NutraSweet: " From what

we

do know, it is conceivable that NutraSweet can, in commonly consumed

doses, cause abnormalities of [the] delicate endocrine control

system,

especially in the developing infant and child. As more and more

foods

containing NutraSweet are added to our diets, the greater the danger

to

ourselves and our children grows. According to the FDA, in 1985

America

consumed 3500 tons of aspartate as NutraSweet. Even more foods

contains

this excitotoxin sweetener today, and it continues to be promoted by

a

series of powerful advertising campaigns. With over a 100 million

persons in the United States alone consuming NutraSweet on a regular

basis, these questions demand answers. And until these answers are

forthcoming NutraSweet should be banned from foods.[10]

 

Dr. Lendon Smith, in his foreward to Deadly Deception says " the

NutraSweet people had a commercial on TV bragging that they now have

200

million people consuming ASP in over 5,000 different products. " Next

time you're mugged, ask the perpetrator if he is getting ASP. When

you

see someone sitting on the sidewalk, tired, alone and depressed, ask

them if they are drinking diet soft drinks. Chances are aspartame is

responsible for a lot of sickness and crime. It is not what Mother

Nature wants us to eat. "

 

60 MINUTES FROM DOWN UNDER

 

Dr. John W. Olney, for 30 years a brain specialist at Washington

University and one of the most respected neuroscientists in the

world,

conducted studies on the effects of aspartame on rats. " The first

study

showed a high incidence of brain tumors, " Dr. Olney said on the

Australian version of " 60 Minutes " (earlier produced in America with

Mike Wallace). " They had twelve brain tumors in 320 aspartame-fed

rats.

They didn't find any brain tumors in the control group of rats. " Our

analysis in human population in the United States, " Dr. Olney

continued,

" shows that there was a large increase in brain tumor incidence

about

three years after aspartame was introduced and there was also a

change

in the malignancy of brain tumors. "

 

The U.S. Congressional Record quotes Olney's findings claiming that

the

scientist " informed G.D. Searle that aspartic acid caused holes in

the

brains of mice. G.D. Searle did not inform the FDA of this study

until

after aspartame's approval. None of the tests submitted by G.D.

Searle

to the FDA contradicted these findings. " [11] " The same types of

aggressive brain tumors that showed up in the aspartame animal

studies

over twenty years ago, " Mike Wallace quotes Dr. Olney, " are now

increasing in the American human population. " [12] " Considerable

evidence

that aspartame is not safe, " Wallace said, " has been published in

the

prestigious Journal of Neuropathology & Experimental Neurology. " [13]

 

When the Australian " 60 Minutes " team asked for an interview with

Monsanto, the parent company of NutraSweet/Kelco, the commentator

claimed that the company refused with the question, " 'What are you

doing

this story with this fellow Dr. John Olney for, when you know he's

into

junk science?' " Junk science published in the Journal of

Neuropathology

& Experimental Neurology? In the scientific world that is somewhat

akin

to accusing Rolls Royce of producing cheap cars.

 

An interview by Wallace of Dr. Ralph G. Walton, Professor of

Psychiatry

at Northeastern Ohio University's College of Medicine, produced some

fascinating and sobering information. Dr. Walton, it seems, had

taken a

survey of the results of aspartame studies and compared them with

who it

was that actually conducted the research. " Of 164 studies on

aspartame, "

Dr. Walton revealed, " 74 were funded by the NutraSweet industry and

every single one of them attested to the safety of aspartame. Of the

90

independently funded studies, " Walton continues, " 83 identified a

problem. " [emphasis supplied] Dr. Walton's stated point was to

illustrate

that no researcher should be involved in studies where his personal

interest is directly effected.

 

When CBN (the Christian Broadcasting Network) interviewed Dr. Olney,

he

told them that G.D. Searle's findings " among aspartame-fed

rats...found

that abnormal growths were 47 times what would occur naturally in

the

animals. " This same Dr. Olney is the researcher responsible for

prompting baby food manufacturers to remove monosodium glutamate

(MSG)

from their products. Junk scientist?

 

THE CASE OF THE MAGIC RAT

 

The Australian commentator in their " 60 Minutes " production made a

significant point in indicating an extreme and perhaps even

fraudulent

problem in G.D. Searle's research and records keeping. In studies

presented by Searle to the FDA for the approval of aspartame, " 60

Minutes " quoted from the infamous Bressler Report. That FDA document

records the results of a five-member investigation team looking into

the

research methods used by Searle and headed by FDA veteran inspector,

Jerome Bressler.[14]

 

The report, consisting of 75 pages of discrepancies found by

Bressler's

team, makes a fascinating claim that would be immensely humorous

were

the implications of falsified research not so grave. " Records

indicated, " the report says, " that animal A23LM was alive at week

88,

dead from week 92 through week 104, alive at week 108, and dead at

week

112. " (Nothing fouls up a study more than an obstreperous lab rat

that

can't decide whether to be dead or alive). " There's not a company PR

man

anywhere in the world who could explain that, " said the

Australian " 60

Minutes " commentator; and, yet, it is this quality of research upon

which the " safety " of aspartame was based.

 

Dr. Olney said of the Searle studies, " there is a prior commissioner

of

FDA, Alexander Schmidt, who declared these studies to be sloppy at

best

and in fact some of them he referred to the Justice Department for

prosecution for apparent fraud. " [15] In the face of that fact, why

was

aspartame approved? The reason Olney gave was that " a commissioner

of

FDA came into office who decided he would approve it regardless of

the

evidence. " That commissioner was Arthur Hull Hays, a Reagan

appointee

who, a few months after leaving FDA, having approved NutraSweet,

accepted a lucrative consulting position with Monsanto's public

relations company. There is that slick Washington dictionary in use

again. The one that does not contain a working definition for the

term

" conflict of interest. "

 

When Monsanto learned that the story about NutraSweet was to air on

Australia's " 60 Minutes, " " their first talk was of a court

injunction, "

then they demanded a company spokesman to appear on the program--

" after

a month of refusing to put up a spokesman. " During that interview

with

Monsanto, representative Dr. Robert H. Moser M.D., the Vice

President of

Health Communications & Education for the NutraSweet Company, the

program host pointedly asked Dr. Moser about lab rat A23LM. This

question came immediately following Moser's claim that Searle's

research

was in perfect order. Moser replied equally pointedly that he would

not

address that issue or anything else contained in the Bressler Report.

 

Dr. Moser's presentation asserting the safety of his company's

product

was disingenuous at best. He stated that the aspartame molecule

never

gets into the blood stream. It occurred to this reporter that the

doctor

thinks that the public must actually believe literally the image

used in

the old animated Bufferin commercial that depicts whole tablets

flowing

through veins and arteries on the way to relieving pain. Of course,

aspartame never reaches the bloodstream as a complete molecule.

There is

a thing called digestion that gets in the way of that. Moser

rightfully

claimed that aspartame is broken down into its three main

constituents.

That is precisely the problem according to researchers. It is those

main

components that they claim are destroying the health of many

consuming

the sweetener. Laboratory research shows that aspartame does not

await

digestion to break down. Above 86 degrees Fahrenheit the molecule

decomposes releasing methanol which is metabolized into formaldehyde

(embalming fluid) which is a known strong carcinogen, proceeds on to

formic acid (ant sting venom) and diketopiperazine, a suspected

agent in

brain tumors and uterine polyps.[16] It is no secret to anyone who

notices that soft drink delivery trucks in hotter climates do not

refrigerate their cargo which frequently exceeds that 86-degree

threshold.

 

In the face of an extraordinary volume of evidence concerning the

health

risks of aspartame, the FDA not only approved it for human

consumption,

but continues to endorse their actions. " The FDA stands behind its

original approval decision, " says a " Talk Paper " issued by FDA, " but

the Agency remains ready to act if credible scientific evidence is

presented to it -- as would be the case for any product approved by

the

FDA. " [17] Huh?

 

One cannot help but ask what quantity of data would be required to

convince the FDA to review its " original approval decision. " The

question seems rhetorical.

 

WHOSE BUCK ARE THEY PASSING ANYWAY?

 

Monsanto's director of corporate communications, Phil Angell, was

quoted

in The New York Times as claiming that the chemical company disavows

any

responsibility for product safety. Commenting on the company's

bovine

growth hormone Angell said, " Monsanto should not have to vouch for

the

safety of biotech food, " he said. " Our interest is in selling as

much of

it as possible. Assuring its safety, " he added, " is the FDA's

job. " [18]

Monsanto claims it is not their responsibility to assure the safety

of

their food products? It is clear, if for no other reason than its

not-so-blind acceptance of Monsanto's research, that the FDA

believes

the chemical giant is accountable in this matter. In this circular,

musical-chairs game of whose responsibility it is to protect the

consumer from their products another matter becomes clear: neither

of

them cares.

 

By Monsanto's claim that their interest " is in selling as much of it

as

possible, " and FDA's acceptance of their research, it is evident

that

expedience and profit-and-loss are the only laws driving both the

corporations and the federal agencies tasked with regulating them.

The

collusion and conflicts of interest displayed by both sectors should

be

a distinct ensign, to all who can see, that humanity in their sight

amounts to no more than those laboratory animals used to produce

their

" junk " research. When any nation worships in the temple of the

dollar,

or whatever their monetary exchange medium, their end has become

assured. Visible destruction becomes little more than a formality--

and a

matter of time.

 

REFERENCES:

 

1.Aviation Medical Bulletin, October, 1988.

2.Deadly Deception - Story of Aspartame by Mary Nash Stoddard,

Odenwald

Press, Dallas, Texas. ISBN 1-884363-14-8.

3.Ibid.

4. " 60 Minutes, " CBS Television, Dec. 28, 1996.

5.Deadly Deception: The Story of Aspartame by Mary Nash Stoddard,

Odenwald Press, Dallas, Texas. ISBN 1-884363-14-8.

6.New England Journal of Medicine, May 5, 1988.

7.Ibid.

8. " Aspartame exacerbates EEF spike-wave discharge in children with

generalized absence epilepsy: a double-blind controlled study. "

Neurology, May, 1992; Vol. 42(5): p. 1000-3.

9.Ibid.

10.Excitotoxins: The Taste that Kills, Russell L. Blaylock, MD,

Health

Press, 1997.

11.Olney 1970, Gordon 1987, page 493 of U.S. Senate 1987.

12.Ibid.

13.Journal of Neuropathology & Experimental Neurology, Nov. 1996.

14. " The Bressler Report " , Congressional Record page S5499 of 1985a.

15.Ibid.

16. " Aspartame, Methanol and the Public Health " , Journal of Applied

Nutrition, Vol. 36, No. 1, 1984.

17.T96-75, Food and Drug Administration, November 18, 1996.

18.Michael Pollan, " Playing God in the Garden, " The New York Times,

October 25, 1998.