Sun. Aug. 18 2002 11:46 PM ET
Hotline gets warnings about pilots and aspartame
Jennifer Tryon, CTV Food Specialist
Over the past eight years, sporadic warnings from consumer groups have appeared in Canadian aviation magazines, suggesting airline pilots call a hotline. There, they can confidentially report problems they've been having from eating or drinking the artificial sweetener aspartame.
"We've had hundreds and maybe thousands of calls that are pilot-related," said Mary Nash Stoddard, who has answered the Aspartame Pilots Hotline for more than a decade from her home in Dallas, Texas.
Stoddard is the founder of the Aspartame Consumers Safety Network, a group she founded when her daughter had a seizure after ingesting aspartame.
CTV News discovered the hotline number in a Health Canada Access to Information request. It was buried in a document submitted to Health Canada in 1995, warning health officials about the risks pilots may be under by consuming aspartame. The document warned of more than 90 symptoms that could be attributed to aspartame. More disturbingly, it also warned that pilots could suffer grand mal seizures in the cockpit after consuming the artificial sweetener.
In a letter obtained by CTV News, one Transport Canada doctor blames aspartame for a former Air Canada pilot’s grand mal seizure. The doctor fought his own department to have the pilot's licence reinstated. The doctor states: "Since his grounding, [the pilot] has eliminated foods containing aspartame... He has not experienced any further episodes of vision disturbances..."
One former Air Canada pilot told CTV News he saw memos on a bulletin board suggesting pilots not consume diet drinks. There was no scientific proof attached, just a warning.
So why aspartame and why pilots?
Some believe it's a coincidence. But others, such as Stoddard, say the amino acids that make up the sweetener, phenylalanine and aspartic acid, cause a reaction in the brain at high altitudes. The reaction can lead to hypoxia, also called "the bends," and sometimes seizure.
Aspartame is made up of two amino acids that form methanol ester, which becomes the substance known as Nutrasweet or Equal. It's 180 times sweeter than sugar and safe for diabetics. Repeated studies have found it to be safe.
Pilots are typically health-conscious and often choose to drink diet drinks to stay hydrated in the air and keep their weight down. Many say the reports on aspartame have been anecdotal in nature. The hundreds who call Stoddard's hotline every year are considered to be misdiagnosing themselves or part of a radical online movement to ban aspartame.
But Hanes Dunn, a former U.S. Air Force and Continental Airlines pilot, now living in Texas City, Texas, believes aspartame cost him his career. In 1990, he suffered a grand mal seizure which resulted in automatic termination of his flying status. Dunn says he's not epileptic and only has seizures when he ingests foods containing the sweetener.
"I've never had an abnormal EEG [brain scan]," says Dunn who, until he started using diet drinks to lose weight, boasted a clean bill of health. "I can't prove it one way or another. But all I know is that all my problems started once I started using diet drinks that were sweetened with aspartame."
Dunn says he believes that, ironically, the diet drinks he drank to keep his weight down to ensure he didn't lose his pilot's licence ended up costing him his licence.
"What I feel like I did was, basically, I committed occupational suicide," Dunn says.
Dunn says being grounded cost him hundreds of thousands of dollars in income, and contributed to his divorce. He says he now refuses to ingest aspartame of any kind and often has to carefully read labels on some foods and drink to ensure it's not in them.
Dunn is just one pilot CTV News found who had suffered seizures and attributed them to aspartame use. Two former Air Canada pilots wouldn't talk on the record. One said it was because he was still flying and didn't want to jeopardize his licence. But Dunn wanted to talk about the problems he's had with the sweetener.
Dunn took part in a clinical test to gauge his reaction to aspartame. He ingested 12 cans of diet cola and was seizure-free. However, he did break out in a rash.
Health Canada is firm in its decision that aspartame is safe in average amounts. Some studies show it would take 16 cans of diet cola for aspartame to become harmful.
John Salminen, Health Canada chief of the Chemical Health Hazards Division, said: "We don't rule out the possibility that there are individuals who cannot tolerate aspartame, I mean that is a possibility."
Artificial Sweetener [Aspartame, Advantame, Neotame, Canderel, AminoSweet, tm NutraSweet tm Equal], information from the files of Mary Nash Stoddard's Aspartame Consumer Safety Network - based in Dallas TX since 1987. Includes Scientific Research and other documentation showing the reported risk factors associated with use of these toxic aspartame-based sweeteners in humans.
BIO Mary Nash Stoddard on Twitter
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PRESENTING: MARY NASH STODDARD - Co-Founder of the massive international anti-aspartame movement in the mid 1980's, following the brain tumor death of her forty two year old husband, Mike. Ms. Stoddard suffered a life threatening aspartame-related blood disorder in 1985, whereupon, The NutraSweet Co. offered her an all-expense paid vacation for two anywhere in the world, if she would agree to be tested by their doctors. She declined, with the blessing of her doctor, and the rest is history. She has conducted multi-national lecture tours and is a popular visiting professor at colleges, universities and medical schools. "Deadly Deception - Story of Aspartame" is a toxicology sourcebook, edited by Ms. Stoddard, documenting the harmful effects of the world's most toxic artificial sweetener. The companion one hour "Deadly Deception" video is further documentation - taped at a prestigious scientific conference. Stoddard's efforts, over more than two decades, led to the present rejection of the sweetener by many of the food and beverage giants of industry, as they rush to distance themselves from the liabilities associated with use of a neuro-toxic substance in their products. She has testified in court as an Expert Medical Witness and like her counterpart, Erin Brokovitch, helped with a number of lawsuits on behalf of consumers. Her powerful message has reached millions around the world through the airwaves on radio and television, in print and through popular personal appearances.
Honors, Awards, Societies:
• Expert Medical Witness [1992-present]
* Guest Presenter Gulf War Veterans Annual Conference - [Las Vegas 1999]
* Visiting Professor: U. T. Southwestern Medical School [1997]
* Visiting Professor: American University School of Journalism [1999]
* Visiting Professor: University of North Texas at Denton Dept. of Science [1990 and 2005]
• Visiting Professor: University of Houston Bioneers Conference [2006]
* Invited speaker: Hebrew Univ. Jerusalem - [1997]
* Keynote speech: Mexican Government's Annual Conference on Sweeteners [1999]
* Appointed Judge - State of Texas [1977-1984]
* Broadcast Journalist - [1965-present]
* President's Council on Food Safety - [1998-1999]
* International Lecture Tours - [1996-present]
* Testimony Senate Committee Hearing on Safety of Aspartame - Washington [1987]
* Panelist at National News Conference Announcing Dr. John Olney's Brain Tumor/Aspartame Connection - Washington D.C. [1998]
* Inducted Member Texas Radio Hall of Fame [2002-present]
Representative of the Texas Rice Growers Association [Miss Rice]
Board member: Irving Symphony Orchestra
Board Member: Irving Community Theater
Founding Board Member Radio Station KNON [public radio], Dallas
Charter member City of Dallas Citizens Safety Committee
Board Member Dallas Mayor’s Fee Task Force
Vice President Operation Get Involved, [liaison committee of the D.P.D.]
Board member Dallas Homeowners League
President Save Open Space
Texas Steering Committee Presidential Election
Award for Public Service - Mexican Government
State of Texas Board of Adjustment
