Angry and concerned voices from New Zealand

DATE: Thursday, July 31st, 1997
TO: Dave Rietz
SUBJECT: New Zealand aspartame story from SOIL & HEALTH, May/June
1997, journal of the Soil & Health Association of NZ Inc, an
organic agriculture and holistic health lobby group affiliated to
the Soil Association network (Soil Association of South Australia,
UK Soil Association)

Here's the text of the story with the various NZ-centred add ons.

All the best,
Chris

          Aspartame/Nutrasweet

     When will the New Zealand Government & Health Ministry
     act? ...Or is that a silly question?  Better question
     still- When will TV2 stop the  sponsorship of the soap
     'Friends' by Diet PepsiZ?
                 (trick question - Which is the brain  poison?)

By Chris Wheeler
Editor, Soil & Health & friends from Mission Possible, USA

We asked a number of serious questions about aspartame in our December/ February issue of the journal, even running the story as our cover issue.

We circulated the facts to all the major news networks in print, radio and television, but only National Radio picked up the story and ran with it.

New Zealand has virtually ignored the relevance of the issue yet a wide range of consumer items are cynically produced with what 83 major scientific speer-reviewed studies have shown to be a poison capable of causing serious medical symptoms and even death.

So subtly has this poison penetrated the national daily diet that a significant number of diet and "fitness" products carrying the approval of the natural health industry are presently available down in your local "health" store.

Several of these products were even featured in a recent Auckland "healthy lifestyles" fair.

I assumed the story regarding the dangers of aspartame/Nutrasweet had received wide coverage in the United States, but when I went there in March I was amazed to find Americans everywhere quaffing Diet Cokes and Pepsis as if nothing had happened. Had they heard the news? Yes, they'd heard a rumour in some cases, but so what? They shrugged their shoulders. "If you believed everything you read about what's in our food you'd stop eating", they said.

Does aspartame make you brain dead? People reacted similarly in the 40s to Jews dying in Nazi concentration camps. Similar apathy allowed Pol Pot to murder several million over two years in Cambodia. We saw it all again in the Bosnian conflict with a gutless UN, incompetent Boutros and immoral NATO-nation politicians permitting the obscenity of "ethnic cleansing."

Aspartame may be a lesser issue to many, but later generations will wonder at our complacency over what is probably the most dangerous chemical industry poison ever to be released for general consumption as a food.

WE ACCUSE - Dr Olney's research has been ignored by our Health Ministry!

Why has world renowned Dr. John Olney's research paper on the aspartame link to brain tumours been ignored or (more probably) been discounted by our Ministry of Health?

Dr Olney produced substantial evidence (on top of the vast volume of already existing evidence!) on aspartame/Nutrasweet/Equal's positive link with brain tumours in his paper "Increasing Brain Tumour rates: Is there a link to Aspartame?" published in the prestigious Journal of Neuropathology & Experimental Neurology, Vol 55, No 11, November 1996, pages 1115-1123.

WE ACCUSE - Monsanto

The seat of the aspartame problem, of course, lies back in the United States, where Monsanto, Du Pont, Dow, etc virtually run the Federal Drug Administration (a Monsanto senior executive is currently under consideration as the incoming head of the FDA!) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) which together set the standards, which New Zealand's Ministries of Health and Agriculture slavishly and unquestioningly follow.

Some attempts have been made by the few American politicians left in Washington retaining a moral sense over health issues to legislate aspartame off the market.

Senator Howard Metzenbaum, who investigated the aspartame issue and the problems arising in the population, wrote a bill way back in 1985 that would have required independent testing by the National Institute of Health and put a moratorium on aspartame.

The bill would have required studies to investigate some of neurological problems then being complained about back in l985 when aspartame was only in a few hundred products not 9000 and climbing with an expired patent and thus an open slather situation for anyone to produce it.

Heavy lobbying by Monsanto prevented the bill from getting out of committee (have you ever noticed how often Monsanto figures in issues involving the poisoning of the planetary Life Force?).

The scientific whistleblowers

Dr. H. J. Roberts in his letter in The Lancet in February this year went a little further than requesting new studies being accomplished. He said: "I have documented other severe neuropsychiatric reactions to aspartame products - most notably headache, seizures, confusion and depression, and the probable acceleration of Alzheimer's disease by aspartame products. I believe that our society faces a preventable medical disaster if aspartame products are not promptly removed from public use."

Dr. Roberts has written on the brain tumor issue for years and has authored books on the dangers of aspartame.

There have been independent studies on aspartame over the years, not funded by the manufacturer Monsanto/Nutrasweet (Monsanto have flicked their Nutrasweet purchase [from Searle] into its own independent company against the day when aspartame poisoning becomes generally recognised and consumer litigation begins. By this mechanism Monsanto hope to avoid legal responsibility in similar fashion to the Dow- Corning strategy over toxic breast implants).

Dr. Ralph Walton on the USA's version of 60 Minutes on Dec 29 (later shown in New Zealand in February) said that out of 90 independent studies 83 showed a problem with aspartame.

During Congressional Hearings on aspartame a document was discussed titled CONFIDENTIAL TRADE SECRET INFORMATION, Food and Drug Sweetener Strategy, 28/12/70. In the concluding paragraph it says: "we have no way of estimating maximum likely abuse and hence need to utilize data based on almost complete conversion to DKP. If we include this .. we stand a good chance of ending up with nothing.." Diketopiperazine (DKP) is the effective BRAIN TUMOUR AGENT in aspartame.

The Verrett evidence for aspartame toxicity

With regard to the studies, Dr. Jacqueline Verrett, a former FDA toxicologist and member of an FDA task force that investigated the authenticity of research done by Searle to establish the safety of aspartame, said she believes the original aspartame studies were "built on a foundation of sand". (Testimony of Dr. Jacqueline Verrett, FDA toxicologist, before the US Senate Committee on Labor and Human Resources, regarding "NutraSweet Health and Safety Concerns, 3/11/87)

Dr. Verrett testified 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" that her investigative team noted in the reevaluation of these studies were also discounted.

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 market place without basic toxicity information. She said there are no data to assess the interactions with DKP, excess phenylalanine (note the warning on Diet Coke and Diet Pepsi bottles in your local supermarket - THEY KNOW it's a poison!), other aspartame metabolites, additives, drugs, or other chemicals.

She elaborated on DKP problems, including significant increases of uterine polyps and changes in blood cholesterol.

DKP is formed when liquids in particular are pre-sweetened with aspartame. The production of DKP is vulnerable to increase in temperature, and higher temperatures produce increasing amounts of DKP.

She reminded members of Congress "that is why initially, aspartame was not intended or not planned to be used in liquids because of this decomposition.. it was decided it was too unstable to be used in hot preparations (see Jarrah in our panel story "What products in NZ contain aspartame?"), hot liquids, and also in diet drinks."

Searle cooks the books & slips the money under the table

On January 10, l977, FDA chief counsel, Richard Merrill, sent a 33 page letter to U.S. Attorney Skinner repeating the request for the grand jury investigation "into apparent violations of the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act. . and False Reports to the Government Act .. by G. D. Searle (the chemical corporate who originally developed aspartame before selling it off to Monsanto). The letter charged that Searle concealed material facts and made false statements in reports of animal studies conducted to establish the safety of aspartame.

Studies cited for investigation had been conducted in l972 and five year statutes of limitation for criminal prosecution were due to expire on 10/10 and 8/12/77.

Good old Yankee corruption (Remember Tricky Dicky Nixon and Watergate? etc, etc) made damn sure that Searle never had to face the music. U. S. Attorney Sam Skinner got an offer he couldn't refuse from the corporates and went to work for Searle's law firm, Sidley and Austin, and the statue of limitations ran out.

Nevertheless an FDA task force observed laboratory methods at Searle from April 25 to August 4, l977. The Bressler Report (named for team leader Jerome Bressler) identified major discrepancies including "substantial differences between gross observation on pathology sheets when compared with those submitted to the FDA" in a rat toxicology test of aspartame. (FDA, Bressler Report, Investigation of Searle Laboratories, 7/8/77) According to the Bressler Report, one rat even appeared resurrected. It stated: "Observed records indicated that animal A23LM was alive at week 88, dead from week 92 to week 104, alive at week 108, and dead at week 112."

The actual meal fed to the rats was also in question. Raymond Schroeder, a former Searle employee, said in an FDA interview on July 13, l977 that "the particles of DKP were large enough to allow the rats to discriminate between the DKP and the basal diet."

Olney, Turner & Gross add to the evidence against aspartame

Dr. John Olney, psychiatrist, neuropathologist and professor at Washington University in St. Louis, found 12 brain tumors in 320 dosed rats and none in 120 control rats when he examined FDA files on aspartame animal studies in l978. Olney advised that the high number of brain tumors was unusual.

Olney voiced another concern based on his research. He showed that when glutamate and aspartic acid are ingested together each agent augments the neurotoxic effects of the other.

Olney, along with consumer activist attorney James Turner, initiated court action over aspartame. In a l986 interview Turner said he had spent 15 years battling approval of aspartame because "its hurting people".

The late Dr. M. Adrian Gross, an FDA toxicologist, spoke out against aspartame in the August 1, l985 Congressional Record.

Gross, who took part in on site investigations at Searle laboratories, said the studies carried out by Searle to show the safety of aspartame were "to a large extent unreliable." He said "at least one of those studies has established beyond any reasonable doubt that aspartame is capable of inducing brain tumors in experimental animals and that this .. is of extremely high significance." (Congressional Record SID835:131 Aug 1, l985)

Gross also testified that because aspartame was capable of producing brain tumors and brain cancer, the FDA should not have been able to set an allowable daily intake of the substance at any level. He said at least one of Searle's "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 has 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 an 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?"

H.R. 3200 just repealed the Delaney Amendment and in June 1996 the FDA at the request of the NutraSweet Co. (Monsanto) gave blanket approval to this neurotoxin without public notification.

Ring-a-Rosy Govt/Chemical industry appointees

Dr. Kessler of the FDA, who give aspartame its final blanket approval, has recently resigned and quit office, his work for the chemical industry completed. His possible replacement will be Virginia Weldon, vice president of Monsanto and a vocal advocate of Nutrasweet who represented Monsanto on the 60 MINUTES programme as their sickening apologist for the product.

Another chemical industry hack was prominent in the original approval of aspartame. Aspartame was initially approved for general release in l981 by Dr. Arthur Hull Hayes (a Ronnie Reagan appointee as FDA Commissioner, what else!) when he over-ruled a scientific Board of inquiry which still had doubts about the product.

Hayes then went to work for the PR firm representing Searle (aspartame's original developers), his mission having been accomplished. He refused to talk to the press for over 10 years and refused recently to be interviewed by 60 Minutes.

REMEMBER THIS!

When the NutraSweet Company, Monsanto, the NZ Ministry of Health and assorted NZ "experts" tell you aspartame has been proven safe, remember that these are the studies that approved it.

This is the myth of the most tested additive in history.

The US chemical industry has an enormously corrupting role at every level of American society. The International Spartina (an aquatic weed) Conference I recently attended (March 20-21) in Washington State at the State University was virtually highjacked by academics plugging for Monsanto's weed control products at every session. Monsanto funds the trade organizations, the American medical establishment represented by the American Medical Association (AMA) and the US Congress.

Petitions to ban aspartame have failed in the past. Monsanto has great power and the FDA has great loyalty to them. When Dr. Olney's report made world news the NutraSweet Co. attempted to defend their product and the FDA went to their defense.

After my own afternoon interview on National Radio of March 3rd on the aspartame/Nutrasweet scandal Radio NZ came under pressure from Monsanto/Nutrasweet to give a "more balanced" coverage to the product, which resulted in a special interview with a Nutrasweet apologist on March 12 - unfortunately at the same time I was winging (or is that "whinging"?) my way to the USA to sample corporate corruption and the Great American Way at its source.

But that's another story.

Soil & Health has joined with Betty Martini and Mission Possible in the USA in exposing the whole dreadful saga of aspartame. Our last story sank without a trace into the national consciousness. Please don't waste this one. We get the information out, but don't expect what is strictly an organisation of unpaid volunteers to do all that needs to be done with aspartame - or anything else, for that matter.

Get in behind the steps for action we suggest on this and the preceding pages. In distant New Zealand, well clear of the political machinations and corporate manipulation of Washington, the levers of political influence are a lot more accessible to the ordinary public.

WE can change things here while American consumers and Betty Martini slug it out with the Washington chemical industry spin doctors, the FDA and their dodgy politicians for the next decade!