Quite a reward for putting a deadly poison on the market and mass poisoning the world so Searle could get rich! Immediately people started complaining and Senator Howard Metzenbaum tried for congressional hearings. They were not heard until 1985 because of Senator Orrin Hatch who was given money from Monsanto who bought Searle that year.
mentions again this problem of sudden death. Six American Airline pilots died who used aspartame including one in flight, who passed out and never woke up.
Many scientists as well as victims testified and it was admitted that the FDA was so overcome with complaints they were sending them to the AIDS Hotline. Senator Metzenbaum wrote a bill to do independent studies by the National Institute of Health having to do with the problems being seen in the population. This included seizures, drug interaction, behavioral problems and what it does to the fetus.
Dr. Louis Elsas testified and said: .... I am a pediatrician, a Professor of Pediatrics at Emory, and have spent 25 years in the biomedical sciences, trying to prevent mental retardation and birth defects caused by excess phenylalanine. And therein lies my basic concern, that aspartame is in fact a well known neurotoxin and teratogen which, in some as yet undefined dose, will both reversibly in the adult and irreversibly in the developing child or fetal brain, produce adverse effects. You remember those sloppy studies by Searle. So what about reproduction studies in teratology to find out what aspartame would do to the fetus? Here is what was discussed in Congress.
"It is significant to note that the Searle employee responsible for reviewing most of the reproduction studies had only one year of prior experience, working on population dynamics of cotton trial rabbits while employed by Illinois Wildlife Service. In order to
prepare him for this title of 'Senior Research Assistant in Teratology' (fetal damage) Searle bought him books to read on the subject and also sent him to a meeting of the Teratology Society. This qualified him to submit 18 of the initial tests to the FDA, in addition to training an assistant and 2 technicians. He certainly must have kept them busy because Searle claimed that 329 teratology examinations were conducted in just 2 days. He estimated that he himself examined about 30 fetuses a day, but officials for the Center for Food and Applied Nutrition could never determine how that was possible." Graves 1984, page S5500 of Congressional Record l985a).
Since aspartame was approved autism has gone through the roof. One woman who used Diet Coke with aspartame through 3 pregnancies has 3 autistic children. Another woman said she stopped using aspartame once pregnant but said her physician at Emory said it built up in her system. She has one autistic child and one with ADD. Today between learning problems and behavioral and psychiatric problems because of this poison our children are medicated instead of educated. A Parents Magazine article in September 1999 said the normal for children today is abnormal.
Senator Metzenbaum in his bill also asked that a moratorium be put on aspartame. The bill never got out of Congress. One physician who testified said Senator Orrin Hatch was a hypocrite and prevented anything from happening. Congress is supposed to be there for the good of the people and obviously doing independent studies on aspartame couldn't hurt anybody but the manufacturer. Nobody in Congress cared about the people since nothing was done during all three congressional hearings with physicians, scientists and victims speaking out on the deadly effects of this drug. Only Monsanto benefited who paid Orrin Hatch and others and made sure happened.
Both FDA toxicologists Dr. Adrian Gross and Dr. Jacqueline Verrett who were on site and saw what happened in original studies spoke out against the FDA who is today, Big Pharma's Washington Branch Office.
On August 1, l985 the FDA's own 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?"
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?" Congressional Record SID835:131 (August 1, l985)
Dr. Jacqueline Verrett told Congress she belied the original aspartame studies were "built on a foundation of sand". She testified in front of a U.S. Senate hearing in 1987 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," which her investigative team noted in the reevaluation of these studies were also discounted. She warned that any of the improper practices would compromise and negate a safety study of food additive. 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 marketplace 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. In Verrettte's testimony, elaborated on DKP problems, including significant increases of uterine polyps and changes in blood cholesterol. Senator Metzenbaum, chairman of the hearing when Verrett testified, asked her if she disagreed with FDA's position that tests for aspartame safety were credible. Verrett succinctly said she disagreed.
So even in 1987, 6 years after approval, aspartame had still not been proven safe. In fact, in l986 the Community Nutritional Institute in Washington, D.C. petitioned the FDA to ban aspartame because so many people were having seizures and going blind from the free methyl alcohol. The FDA refused. Remember today the FDA is part of Big Pharma. When those responsible to solve the problem ARE the problem it's a disgrace and an abomination.
As people continued to have seizures and other problems Monsanto would fund studies to show safety. Here are examples of scientific abuse in aspartame seizure studies: http://www.dorway.com/wurtman2.html
Because its impossible to show safety of a poison like aspartame, Dr. Ralph Walton did research on scientific peer reviewed studies and funding. This showed that 92% of independent studies showed the problems and only those funded and controlled by the manufacturer ever said they were safe.
In fact, Dr. Walton says if you eliminate 6 studies that the FDA had something to do with because of their obvious siding with industry now, and one pro-industry summary, that 100% of independent scientific peer reviewed studies showed the problems aspartame causes. This proves if the aspartame industry keeps their checkbook and influence out of it, there is no way to get aspartame to show safety. Here is that research by Dr. Walton: http://www.dorway.com/peerrev.html
FDA has betrayed the public trust. Today it has ignored 100 independent scientific peer reviewed studies including the Trocho Study, which showed that aspartame embalms living tissue and damages DNA. When you damage DNA you can destroy humanity. Dr. Alemany who sent testimony to Hawaii told me personally in Barcelona that aspartame could kill 200 million people. The NutraSweet people when this study was done tried to assassinate his character. Funding was immediately reduced.
There is a company called ILSI who gives funding with members like Monsanto, Searle, Coke, Pepsi, etc., (that is: as long as you're willing to say this poison is safe). FDA has also ignored a petition for ban for 6 years even though the law requires they answer it in 180 days. Why haven't they answered it, because the facts in the petition are from their own records and how do you disagree with that. An imminent health hazard petition must be answered within a couple of weeks. I sent this in October. They have ignored that too.
My Senator told me if you want to ban aspartame is has to go through the local legislature. First we tried New Mexico. The Capital was saturated with lobbyists and front groups like Calorie Control Council who even push aspartame on pregnant women. Some of the Senators I testified too sat there sipping Diet Coke.
Aspartame is addictive, the free methyl alcohol, classified as a narcotic causes chronic methanol poisoning. This affects the dopamine system of the brain and causes addiction. I happened to ask Dr. Bill Deagle one day why addicts on aspartame were not rational. He said because aspartame affects the frontal lobe so it's like talking to someone who has had a lobotomy.
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