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WHEREAS, aspartame metabolites include formaldehyde, a "class A" carcinogen, diketopiperazine, a brain tumor agent, and formic acid; and
WHEREAS, in 1974, the United States Food and Drug Administration approved aspartame as an artificial sweetener, but asked its manufacturer Searle to hold back from selling it on the market until further tests could be made with regards to its safety; and
WHEREAS, scientific data revealed that there was a problem with aspartame safety data and the United States Food and Drug Administration withdrew its approval; and
WHEREAS, in 1975, the United States Food and Drug Administration initiated an investigation into Searle's laboratory practices and discovered fraud in scientific experiments as well as manipulated data giving favorable results proving aspartame to be safe; and
WHEREAS, the results of this investigation are included in what is called "The Bressler Report" by Jerome Bressler; and
WHEREAS, in 1980, Dr. John Olney submitted scientific data to a United States Food and Drug Administration Public Board of Inquiry showing that aspartic acid, the excitotoxic ingredient in aspartame, caused holes in the brains of mice; and
WHEREAS, Dr. John Olney stated that it warranted special emphasis that excitotoxins act by an acute but silent mechanism requiring only a single exposure to toxic concentrations for CVO neurons to be quietly destroyed, that clearly Searle failed to establish the safety of their product, aspartame, for use in children's food, and that all age comparative data support the following conclusions: (1) orally administered excitotoxins destroy CVO neurons at any age; (2) immature animals are most vulnerable; and (3) the toxic threshold increases only gradually between birth and adulthood; and
WHEREAS, in 1980, the Public Board of Inquiry unanimously voted against aspartame approval, but was overruled by a new United States Food and Drug Administration Commissioner, Dr. Arthur Hull Hays, against the advice of Food and Drug Administration scientific personnel and advisers; and
WHEREAS, the United States Food and Drug Administration approved aspartame use in sodas, despite the fact that the National Soft Drink Association argued vehemently against aspartame in these quotes from their protest:
(1) "The present record does not contain data which demonstrate that the use of APM in soft drinks will not result in the adulteration of the beverages under section 402(a)(3) of the FDC Act 21 U.S.C. 342(a)(3), which provides that a food is adulterated if it contains, in whole or in part, "a decomposed substance or if it is otherwise unfit for food";
(2) "An important decomposition product of aspartame, aspartic acid, cannot be detected at all using TLC";
(3) "G. D. Searle and Company has not demonstrated to a reasonable certainty that the use of aspartame in soft drinks, without quantitative limitations, will not adversely affect human health as a result of the changes such use is likely to cause in brain chemistry and under certain reasonably anticipated conditions of use"; and
(4) "Specifically, Searle has not met its burdens under section 409....to demonstrate that aspartame is safe and functional for use in soft drinks. Collectively, the extensive deficiencies in the stability studies conducted by Searle to demonstrate that aspartame and its degradation products are safe in soft drinks intended to be sold in the United States, render those studies inadequate and unreliable." Senate Congressional Record, May 7, 1985, S5507–5511; and
WHEREAS, the United States Food and Drug Administration has compiled a list of ninety-two symptoms attributed to aspartame consumption including four types of seizures, coma, and death; and
WHEREAS, the Ramazzini Studies by the European Foundation for Oncology in Italy conducted exhaustive studies over three years with thousands of rats, and proved aspartame to be a multipotential carcinogen, thus confirming the United States Food and Drug Administration's original findings; and
WHEREAS, the United States Food and Drug Administration admitted that aspartame caused cancer over two decades ago when the Administration's toxicologist, Dr. Adrian Gross, told Congress at least one of Searle's studies "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 had 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 and Cosmetic Act? 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?" Congressional Record, August 1, l985, SID835:131; and
