The promoters of aspartame use have been lying from the beginning and continue to use their money and political clout to cover up the real and present dangers of this toxic product.
Russell L. Ballock, M.D.
Neurosurgeon
Ridgeland, MS 39157
_____________________
As to Dr. Fukino's espousal of the Ajinomoto "study," we are indeed patient, ready and willing to educate her, if that is acceptable to you and to her as to the egregious flaws in that so-called Burdock Report, and if this is even possible with the presence of the Calorie Control Council in the Resolution. Because the gullible Dr. Fukino didn't have the ability nor take the time to research based on facts easily found in the public record, Mark Gold of the Aspartame Toxicity Center, did it for her. Here is the rebuttal to this atrocity to stumble the public, which we ask be included in the official testimony on this Resolution of yours: .
http://www.holisticmed.com/aspartame/burdock%3E%3C/A%3Ehttp://www.holisticmed.com/aspahttp://www.holisticmed.com/aspartame/burdock/>http://www.holisticmed.com/aspartame/burdock/
Any physician should have known better than to use one of the manufacturer's defense reviews. Much of their "flawed" research has already been exposed.
Next, in the proposed work group, you have included the American Beverage Association, the present successor to the National Soft Drink Assn. They wrote a 30 page protest in l983 stating Searle had not met its burdens under section 409 ... to demonstrate that aspartame is functional for use in soft drinks. They spoke about the extensive deficiencies, enough to render those studies inadequate and unreliable. They stated the company did not demonstrate the use of aspartame in soft drinks would not result in the adulteration of the beverages. The protest was so vehement that when NSDA turned around and lobbied for NutraSweet, their protest was added to the congressional record of May, l985, so the world would know they were adding this toxin with full knowledge of the studies that did not prove it safe. Are you expecting they are going to say they are sorry and want to turn around and help the people now?
We are however, willing and prepared to further educate them as to the point of view implicit in their vehement objections in 1983, the details of which are included in a forthcoming more effective Senate Resolution, which you may read shortly when it has been formally introduced.
Do you really believe front groups who are paid and those who sell the product will not defend their product? Are we to believe that the plan in your Resolution is a serious and unbiased program to help Hawaiians? Why not just invite the CEO's of Ajinomoto, Monsanto and Merisant and let them have a reunion on the House Floor, and pass out diet sodas for everyone to drink?
Dr. Green, in your possession you have Dr. H. J. Roberts medical text of over 1000 pages of the horrors this poison causes from cancer, neurodegenerative diseases, seizures and sudden death, to embalming of living tissue and interaction of drugs, written by a physician with over two decades experience treating diabetics who are victims of aspartame poisoning, as well as those diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis, who symptoms subside once they stop consuming Aspartame. Selected by his medical peers in 1984 as the best doctor in the US, Roberts has taken care of aspartame victims in the trenches of medical practice and has testified before Congress. You're a physician. Have you forgotten "First do no harm"? Why would you invite the corporate hacks and front groups who poisoned the people to work a program to genuinely protect them?
We are somewhat appalled at your resolution, although under the circumstances, with less that 30 hours before the first testimony may be heard, and rushing to complete this letter before 24 hours before the hearing, we have to rise in support of the Resolution, with a few changes, like adding 2 victims instead of consumers chosen by the Director of the Health Department. You had full knowledge because you are the only member of the entire legislature with Dr. Roberts' medical text, and were even given a documentary where the attorney himself who tried to stop approval explains how it was marketed by the political chicanery and regulatory coup by Don Rumsfeld after the FDA revoked the petition for approval and said it could not be proven safe.
Why do you think the FDA wanted the company indicted? Because they kept trying to prove a poison safe, and couldn't do it; they kept getting caught.
In saying in the Resolution that the people of Hawaii have a choice to consume or not consume aspartame, thus giving a kind of carte blanche to any corporation manufacturing anything, as they do in most 3rd world nations which have no regulatory apparatuses set up to protect them: this is technically true; however, most Hawaiians, like most Americans, really don't read labels, as they have been assured hundreds of times that the United States Food and Drug Administration would never approve a poison, and most naively believe that the FDA is "there to protect them." Further, we are sure that 90% of them don't know what a phenylketoneuric even is. Corporations and their front groups loudly proclaimed the safety of their products like Asbestos, Leaded Gasoline, Thalidomide, DDT, Vioxx, etc., until the body count and the lawsuit piled up so badly that their lies were completely transparent. Wouldn't your point of view there obviate the entire purpose of committees like yours and the House Committee for Consumer Protection and Commerce, because you are basically saying: Let the Buyer Beware, or Caveat Emptor?
For no ulterior motive or personal profit whatsoever, except that it is the right thing to do, we are trying to protect the people of Hawaii from a poison, not defend front groups lobbyists and manufacturers or allow them a forum for more chicanery and deception. There is not a person who has read this resolution who has not seen through it. You have read many medical texts; you know the score.
A few weeks ago, under obvious and regrettable pressure from Grocery Manufacturers and Soft Drink bottlers, you deferred the bill when it could have been moved to the next committee, and now you bring in those we've been exposing for years. How will you explain this to your constituents, in the event that they ask you? This whole resolution is like asking baby killers to decorate the nursery. They will spend all their time convincing you and the committee this poison is safe as rain or as safe as "mother's milk," and then you can walk away and say "we tried."
Thank you and the Committee Members for reading this long testimony prepared on very short notice.
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