PRESIDENT'S COUNCIL ON FOOD SAFETY – FOOD SAFETY STRATEGY PLAN
Official Statement of
Aspartame Consumer Safety Network to:
President's Council on Food Safety Hearing
December 8, 1998
Dallas, Texas
The Aspartame Consumer Safety Network is a coalition of consumers and health care professionals [over 10,000 strong] around the world who have a common concern. That concern is for the safety of our food supply and the health of those who consume it. We are specifically concerned that after several decades of coverup regarding the health and safety effects of the controversial artificial sweetener, aspartame [produced primarily by the NutraSweet Kelco Co. of Deerfield IL, a subsidiary of Monsanto Chemical and others].
Our network produces a 200 page Toxicology Sourcebook [Deadly Deception - Story of Aspartame] to support our allegations that this substance is unsafe for human consumption in our food supply. It contains numerous independent studies showing harm – ranging from birth defects to brain tumors.
In 1987 I presented testimony to a Senate Committee looking into the safety of aspartame in Washington D.C. At that time there was more than enough evidence to indict this sweetener and remove it from the marketplace because of health concerns [as it was following its first approval in 1974 because of the brain tumor issue]. Today, we can show even more proof in the thousands of adverse reactions reported to the Food and Drug Administration and others. Seventy-eight percent of all complaints to the FDA are about adverse reactions to aspartame
Today, I ask you to reconsider the decision to continue to label safe that which some scientists have proven in the laboratory to be a neurotoxin and carcinogen. Please do the right thing and keep our food supply free of harmful chemical agents.
Fake foods, whether they be fake fat, fake sugar or otherwise are not natural and carry with them the potential for great harm. Chemical sweeteners have no place in our lives if we wish to maintain maximum good health. Some studies show they actually encourage weight gain. Many healthy truly natural alternatives exist for use as sweeteners.
Our organization takes the stand that carcinogens such as aspartame [aka NutraSweet, Equal etc.] are potentially toxic and do not belong in our food supply, and we remain dedicated to educating others as to these hazards. In the lab, animals died. Others developed brain tumors, pancreatic tumors, uterine tumors and mammary [breast tumors. This also includes the new sweetener known as Neotame, which is waiting approval from the FDA. Neotame is 8000 times sweeter than sugar and will be produced by Monsanto's NutraSweet Kelco Co. It has virtually the same formula as aspartame with dimethylbutyl [listed on the EPA list of hazardous chemicals] added.
Respectfully submitted,
Mary Nash Stoddard, Founder
Department of Agriculture
Food Safety and Inspection Service
[Docket No. 98-045N]
DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Food and Drug Administration
[Docket No. 97N-0074]
Environmental Protection Agency
[Docket No. OPP-00550A:FRL-6034-3]
Food Safety Initiative Strategic Plan Agency: Food Safety and Inspection Service, USDA: Research, Education, and Economics, USDA; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, HHS; Food and Drug Administration, HHS; Environmental Protection Agency
RELATED PRESS RELEASE:
Dallas – December 8 – ACSN — Dallas-based Epidemiologist, Mary Nash Stoddard, a founder of the world's burgeoning anti-aspartame movement in 1987, will deliver findings regarding thousands of adverse reactions to the world's most controversial sweeteners at a special Hearing of the President's Council on Food Safety in Dallas today. The Aspartame Consumer Safety Network operates an adverse reaction hotline and database and is the clearinghouse for information on the sweetener.
Representing a constituency of over 10,000 concerned consumers, Stoddard calls for an immediate 'Moratorium' on all aspartame sweeteners until their absolute safety can be assured by independent research. A precedent for this type of action was set in 1992 when the Food and Drug Administration called a 'Moratorium' on silicone breast implants. Ms. Stoddard first testified to the U.S. Senate in November, 1987. She later submitted formal petitions objecting to the FDA's support of the sweetener asking that aspartame be recalled and re-tested as a drug, which is how it was discovered.
Seizures, loss of vision, vertigo, suicidal depressions, heart problems, etc. are routinely reported. Reactions in many consumers are reported to cause bizarre psychological symptoms as well. In tests, lab animals developed: Brain Tumors-Pancreatic Tumors-Breast Tumors and Uterine Tumors. These were covered up. Federal Prosecutor, Samuel Skinner was bringing criminal charges against the makers of aspartame [G.D. Searle, now a subsidiary of Monsanto Chemical Co.], but excused himself at the last minute – defecting to Searle's law firm, Sidley & Austin. The lawsuit was then dropped by the Federal Prosecutor's Office.
Aspartame [aka NutraSweet/Equal] is 10% methanol (wood alcohol) by weight and breaks down further in heat and in the body into: formaldehyde, formic acid and a brain tumor agent, DKP. ###
