5/21/97 Full text of the Mission Possible protest about selecting yet another drug/chemical industry employee to head the FDA. Dr. Virginia Weldon, VP for Public Policy at Monsanto Chemical is a "top candidate" to become Commissioner of the FDA, reported the St. Louis Post Dispatch Tuesday. FDA approved Monsanto's NutraSweet, Equal and bovine growth hormone, Posilac, which are under mounting international medical and consumer criticism as toxic substances. NutraSweet and Equal are Monsanto brands of the neurotoxin aspartame. The original developer of NutraSweet was Searle which was acquired by Monsanto in l985. "If Weldon gets the appointment Monsanto will have its former Vice President empowered to bless dozens of new Monsanto bioengineered chemicals and sweeteners. NutraSweet 2000 is slated for approval in l998 according to 4/21/97 Chemical & Engineering News. Is it Monsanto's mission to have their Dr. Weldon become FDA Commissioner to approve it? "These job swaps by FDA officials are a well oiled revolving door that doesn't even squeak, it just stinks", says Betty Martini, founder of Mission Possible. "Think of the FDA as Monsanto's Washington branch office." Monsanto researcher Margaret Miller who worked on the bovine growth hormone, transferred to FDA and got the job of reviewing her own research. Miller increased the antibiotic protocol for milk to permit an increase of 10,000 percent. Cows treated with rBST require more antibiotics because of rampant udder infections. Monsanto attorney Michael Taylor was hired to an FDA post where he could oversee the approval process. Martini calls these events "The Monsanto march on Washington." In l977 Justice Department attorneys Sam Skinner and William Conlon were assigned to prosecute Searle for submitting fradulent tests on NutraSweet. They switched sides to join the defense lawyers and the case died when the statute of limitations expired. On 2/7/86 the Wall Street Journal reported the probe of these two ex-U.S. Prosecutors by Senate investigators. Former FDA Commissioner Arthur Hull Hayes who approved NutraSweet and ignored the contrary recommendations of his own Task Force became a consultant to Searle's public relations firm, Burson Marsteller. Hayes was being investigated for accepting gratuities when he quit. David Kessler, the FDA Commissioner who recently retired when questioned for padding his expense account, gave blanket approval to NutraSweet even though it has an allowable daily intake, without public notification in June. He has protected Monsanto by ignoring the FDA register of 10,000 complaints and their published list of 92 reactions to aspartame from coma and blindness to seizures and death. Kessler consistently protected Monsanto by refusing to require chemical breakdown tests of the drug. The original work was just done by 11 year old Jennifer Cohen for a school science project as reported in the Food Chemical News, May 5. She stored 7 cans of Diet Coke in a refrigeraetor for 10 weeks which broke down and released formaldehyde and diketopiperazine, a brain tumor agent. The cola was analyzed by Winston Laboratories in Ridgefield, New Jersey (201 -440-0022). According to the Food Chemical News the FDA said they knew it all along. On June 2, l995 H. J. Roberts, M.D. wrote Newt Gingrich and said: ".. Congress must review this threat at a new open hearing (aspartame disease), and second, it should declare aspartame products to be an "imminent public health hazard" and withdraw them from the market".. He wrote on the association of brain tumors with aspartame in a peer reviewed report in the Journal of Advancement in Medicine, Vol 4, Number 4, Winter 1991. John W. Olney, M.D. made world news when he announced the increase in brain tumors (of the variety the rats developed in original studies) and questioned the link to aspartame in Nov. 96 in the J. Neuropath Exp. Neurol. Vol 55, No. 11. As reported by Dr. Frank Walton on 60 Minutes, Dec 29, of 90 independent studies not funded by the manufacturer, 83 showed problems with aspartame. Dr. Virginia Weldon appeared on the show to defend NutraSweet against charges in the Nov issue of the Journal of Neurology linking it to brain tumors. Mission Possible has demanded FDA recall of aspartame on the basis that a pivotal study of aspartame, SC 18862, produced grand mal seizures in 6 of 7 infant monkeys. One died. Mrs. Martini says: "I fail to see how grand mal seizures prove safety! The FDA report of symptoms list 4 different types of seizures in the public." Acting FDA Commissioner Michael Friedman has ignored the demand. James Turner, Washington based attorney, explained on 60 Minutes that the original studies on aspartame never proved safety and were not replicated. The late FDA toxicologist, Dr. Adrian Gross, told Congress that aspartame violated the Delaney Amendment because it triggered brain tumors, astrocytomas (first stage of the deadly glioblastoma now said to be rampant in the population). The Bressler Report exposed mammary, uterine and ovarian tumors. Rats listed as dead appeared alive later in the report! Now comes a translator giving a notarized statement that Searle had replicated the studies on humans in other countries and that she and a Mexican physician translated them. Even though the studies were short in duration, not over 18 months, she says subjects began dropping out with astrocytomas and seizures. This confirms the link of brain tumors to aspartame continually warned by Roberts and Olney. She says the studies were done on poor people in villages of South America and that the people were told aspartame was made from papaya. Aspartame is a molecule composed of three components: aspartic acid, phenylalanine and methanol. Methanol, a severe metabolic poison, converts to formaldehyde and formic acid and causes metabolic acidosis. Phenylalanine and aspartic acid when isolated from the other amino acids in protein go past the blood brain barrier and deteriorate the neurons of the brain causing brain damage of varying degrees, according to H. J. Roberts, M.D., and neurosurgeon, Russell Blaylock, M.D. Phenylalanine breaks down into DKP, the brain tumor agent. Conversion to DKP was admitted on secret trade information discussed in Congress. Dr. Virginia Weldon is a pediatrician, and Pediatric Professor, Dr. Louis Elsas (Emory/Genetics) testified before Congress in l987 that aspartame is a neurotoxin and teratogen (triggers birth defects!). If she becomes the new FDA Commissioner will history repeat itself? "It's the same song in the same saloon with new nudes," says Martini. "Their corruption is exposed for all to see. Play it again, Sam!" Contact: Betty Martini, Mission Possible Worldwide, 770 242-2599 Request is made that this press release be added to web pages andq forwarded to press in every state of this country, and every country of the world. President Clinton and Congress should be immediately notified. Secret trade information, translator's statement and Cohen's report available to press. ********************************************************************* For more information on aspartame email: bettym19@mindspring.com Mrs. Betty Martini Mission Possible International 9270 River Club Parkway Duluth, Georgia 30097