TODAY THE WORLD IS WATCHING:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELgW4KBY-o4
Aspartame Consumer Safety Network founder, Mary Nash Stoddard worked for over four months, in 1999, with producer, Saundra Young of FOX TV- CH 5, Washington D.C., to pull this story together. Stoddard was FOX's resource for aspartame info, doctors and victims Edythe Johnson and Larry Taylor, CRNA, Vice President of ACSN. Shown seated at the table next to anesthetist Taylor, in front of Stoddard at the Senate Hearing, was Major Michael Collings, the F-16 pilot who helped initiate the ACSN Pilot Hotline.
FOX interviewed ACSN's contacts and came up with a great story. At almost eight minutes into the story, ACSN was credited as founders, James Turner, Esq. and broadcast journalist, Mary Nash Stoddard were interviewed, after their historic meeting with top FDA officials. [The meeting that generated the all-important 'news hook' for the story.] It aired in the fall of 1999. Earlier that week, Stoddard was a guest lecturer at American University in Washington. CBN News aired a segment on the ACSN-FDA meeting later which Stoddard helped produce with medical reporter, Gailon Totheroh. When Stoddard returned to Dallas from Washington, her news segment about little Katrina Carridine, a child diagnosed with meningitis, aired on FOX TV in Dallas.
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CONSUMER ADVOCATES PRESENT NEW SCIENTIFIC STUDY TO FDA OFFICIALS
for immediate release
contact: Mary 214-387-4001
Washington D.C. - October 6, 1999 -- Today marked the first formal meeting in twelve years between top level Food and Drug Administration officials and leaders of the international anti-aspartame [aka NutraSweet/Equal] movement. James Turner, Esq. and former State Judge, Mary Nash Stoddard met for one hour today in the Washington D.C. offices of the Food and Drug Administration. Congressman Dick Armey's office arranged the meeting with: George Pauli, PhD; Rudolph Harris, PhD; and Blondell Anderson in the 12th floor conference room at 1110 Vermont Avenue NW. Turner and Stoddard first met with FDA officials in November, 1987, after presenting sworn testimony at the third Senate Hearing on the Safety of Aspartame.
The Agenda for today's meeting was pre-set by A.C.S.N. representatives and included the following points:
1. Presentation of new scientific evidence in the form of a peer reviewed study in which aspartame causes binding of methanol's breakdown product, formaldehyde [a potent, cumulative toxin] into tissues.
2. Discussion of viable solutions which may be agreed upon by both FDA and ACSN. [Example: Moratorium and retesting as a drug.] [ACSN is looking for a win/win resolution of this problem - similar to the treatment given the Breast Implant Issue by FDA.] Stoddard and Turner want the agency to err on the side of caution in the case of aspartame also. The precedent was established with the silicon breast implant moratorium.
3. Improved Product Labeling requirements. Although aspartame has not received GRAS [generally recognized as safe] status from FDA, our constituents have expressed grave concerns regarding labeling of products containing the sweetener. [Example: Augmentin 200 mg. dose for infants contains aspartame. Yet, the word 'aspartame' is no where on the label.]
The fact that hundreds of adverse reactions are reported to ACSN's private Pilot Hotline [since 1987] was discussed, but nothing resolved in the dilemma of helping the FAA deal with publishing a formal warning to pilots. [Federal Aviation Administration officials said they cannot go against a fellow government agency, the FDA, and say the substance is unsafe - even if they personally believe reports that show it to be unsafe.]
Government officials, at the meeting, restated their long standing position that aspartame has not been shown to be responsible for 'any' adverse reactions. That 'media exposure' and flurries of adverse reaction reports are directly correlated. And, that aspartame will be added to almost all new prescription medication formulas for infants and children because of its 'homogeneous properties.' These product labels will bear the words 'contains phenylalanine' but not the word 'aspartame' as an ingredient.
Dr. George Pauli stated that the fake fat Olestra was gaining on aspartame as the most complained about food additive. He said FDA officials did not take any of those complaints seriously either - believing unequivocally in the safety of both aspartame and Olestra. Dr. Pauli said it was still under review by the agency. ACSN registered vigorous objections to the approval of Neotame as a new artificial sweetener, based on the published data.
Stoddard presented FDA officials with a large packet of information, including her toxicology sourcebook, Deadly Deception Story of Aspartame and a copy of neurosurgeon Dr. Russell Blaylock's book, Excitotoxins, The Taste That Kills. In the meeting Stoddard described as 'somewhat cordial,' no specific agreements were reached by the two parties. However, according to ACSN's Stoddard, a door was opened which will hopefully lead to a more responsive attitude on the part of the Agency charged with protecting the consumer. Perhaps under the leadership of newly appointed FDA Director, Dr. Jane Henney, they will begin to listen more attentively to the concerns of ACSN, the organization which carries with it a constituency of well over 10,000 individuals on six continents.
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New aspartame study referenced above:
Trocho C, Pardo R, Rafecas I, Virgili J, Remesar X,
Fernandez-Lopez JA, Alemany M
Formaldehyde derived from dietary aspartame binds to tissue
components in vivo. Life Sci 1998 Jun 26; 63(5): 337-49.
Departament de Bioquimica i Biologia Molecular, Facultat de Biologia,
Universitat de Barcelona, Spain.
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Since the FOX TV report aired in Washington in the fall of 1999, more studies have been published showing aspartame should be re-called and re-tested as a drug:
In Vivo. 2007 Jan-Feb;21(1):89-92.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=pubmed&cmd=Retrieve&dopt=AbstractPlus&list_uids=17354619&query_hl=2&itool=pubmed_DocSum
The effect of aspartame administration on oncogene and suppressor gene expressions.
Gombos K, Varjas T, Orsos Z, Polyak E, Peredi J, Varga Z, Nowrasteh G,
Tettinger A, Mucsi G, Ember I.
Faculty of Medicine, Institute of Public Health University of Pecs, Pecs, Hungary.
BACKGROUND: Aspartame (L-phenylalanineN-L-alpha-aspartyl-1-methyl ester) is an artificial sweetener withwidespread applications. Previously published results have shown that among rats receiving aspartame a significant increase of lymphoreticular neoplasms, brain tumours and transitional cell tumours occurred. The aim of our short-term experiment was to investigate the biological effect of aspartame consumption by determining the expressions of key oncogenes and a tumour suppressor gene.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: After one week per os administration of various doses ofaspartame to CBA/CA female mice, p53, c-myc, Ha-ras gene expression alterations were determined in individual organs.
RESULTS: The results showed an increase in gene expressions concerning all the investigatedgenes especially in organs with a high proliferation rate:lymphoreticular organs, bone-marrow and kidney.
CONCLUSION: Aspartame has a biological effect even at the recommended daily maximum dose.
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Mary Nash Stoddard, Founder
Aspartame Consumer Safety Network and Pilot Hotline
[Promoting FDA Recall of Aspartame - since 1987]
P.O. Box 2001 - Frisco, TX 75034 - U.S.
phone: 1-214-387-4001
email: marystod@airmail.net
http://www.aspartamesafety.com
