Forward: by Barbara Mullarkey, writer


"The l977 Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) Bressler Report remains a
key document against aspartame, the synthetic sweetener known as
NutraSweet and Equal.  This 76 page report was the culmination of a
priority investigation at G. D. Searle's laboratory in Skokie, Illinois.
It compared all the available raw and summary data of an 115 week oral
tumorgenicity rat study, against the manufacturer's FDA submission.

Jerome Bressler, the team leader, found missing raw data, errors and
discrepancies in available data, exclusions of animals, organ masses and
enlarged and atrophied organs.  An undiagnosed uterine polyp increased the
incidence to 15 percent of the aspartame-dosed animals.  The FDA's Bureau
of Foods officials chose to ignore the findings of the Bressler REport.

In l981, FDA Commissioner Arthur Hull Hayes, Jr., M.D. approved aspartame
in dry goods and in l983, Mark Novitch, acting for the commissioner,
approved aspartame in liquids.  The 92 symptoms, in the 10,0000 plus
consumer complaints reported to the FDA, include those suffered by the
rats as noted in the Bressler Report."

Barbara Mullarkey
% NutriVoice,
P. O. Box 946
Oak Park, Illinois 60303



(Note: Searle was the original manufacturer and Monsanto (NutraSweet Co.)
bought them in l985.)