OPEN LETTER TO AJINOMOTO,
ASPARTAME MANUFACTURER

This is in response to their disinformation starting at:
http://american.aspartame-info.com/media/default.asp

Dear Ajinomoto:

You say your goal is to provide objective information about aspartame and that from time to time it has been the focus of unfounded criticism. Let's get this straight from the beginning, aspartame has been the focus of criticism for the 20 years it has been on the market as well as for the 16 years that the FDA was able to prevent its approval.

You say its your intention to let science speak for itself, so let's do just that. First of all, the FDA not only said it wasn't safe from the beginning but they also wanted Searle indicted. We all understand the power of the pharmaceutical company, even to the point that both U.S. Prosecutors, Sam Skinner and William Conlon hired on with the defense team, Sidley and Austin, and the statute of limitations expired.

If a product is safe you don't have to use psychomanipulation to get it approved. An internal G. D. Searle memo laid out the strategy. (Helling 1970): We have this on http://www.dorway.com/secrets.html labeled as Secret Trade Info, and it was released during Congressional Hearings. Here is an excerpt:

"At this meeting (with FDA officials), the basic philosophy of our approach to food and drugs should be to try to get them to say "yes," to rank the things that we are going to ask for so we are putting first those questions we would like to get a "yes" to, even if we have to throw some in that have no significance to us, other than putting them in a yes saying habit.

We must create affirmative atmosphere in our dealing with them. It would help if we can get them to get their people involved to do us any such favors. This would also help bring them into subconscious spirit of participation."

"With the spoon-for-spoon, 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 use in the original FAP, we stand a good chance of ending up with nothing in the short run and nothing in the long run whereas the other approach would give us something in the short run and, quite likely as much as we would ever get in the long run. I think it becomes very important for us to start to get our sweetener into commercial channels as soon as possible to minimize the incentive that people now have to work on other sweeteners. Actions in the U.S. will tend to influence the actions in other countries as well."

1. "Excising masses (tumors) from live animals, in some cases without histologic examination of the masses, in others without reporting them to the FDA." (Schmidt l976c, page 4 of US Senate l976b). Searle's representatives, when caught and questioned about these actions, stated that "these masses were in the head and neck areas and prevented the animals from feeding." (Buzzard 1976a)

   [Martini: Frankly, a burglar could think of a better alibi! And just how many brain tumors were excised that weren't caught?]

   "Failure to report to the FDA all internal tumors present in the experimental rats, e.g. polyps in the uterus, ovary neoplasms as well as other lesions." (Gross l987a, page 8)

2. G. D. Searle "stored animal tissues in formaldehyde for so long that they deteriorated." (Gordon l987, page 496 of US Senate l987; US Schmidt l976c, page 25, 27 of US Senate l976b)

3. "Instead of performing autopsies on rhesus monkeys that suffered seizures after being fed aspartame, the company had financed a new monkey seizure study with a different methodology that showed no problems." (Gordon l987, page 496 of US Senate l987)

4. "Reporting animals as unavailable for necropsy when, in fact, records indicate that the animals were available, but Searle choose not to purchase them." (Schmidt l976c, page 5 of U.S. Senate l976b)

5. "Animals which had died were sometimes recorded as being alive and vice versa. "These include approximately 20 instances of animals reported as dead and then reported as having vital signs normal again at subsequent observation periods." (Gross l985, page S10835)

6. "Selecting statistical procedures which used a total number of animals as the denominator when only a portion of the animals were examined, thus reducing the significance of adverse effects." (Schmidt l976c, page 4 of US Senate l976b)

7. G. D. Searle told the FDA that 12 lots of DKP were manufactured and tested in one study, yet only seven batches were actually made. (Gross l985, page S10835).

8. "Significant deviations from the protocols of several studies were noted which may have compromised the value of these studies .... In at least one study, the Aspartame 52 week monkey study, the protocol was written after the study had been initiated." (Gross l985, page S10835)

9. "It is significant to note that the Searle employee responsible for reviewing most of the reproduction studies had only one year of prior experience, working on population dynamics of cotton tail rabbits while employed by Illinois Wildlife Service. In order to prepare him for this title of 'Senior Research Assistant in Teratology' (fetal damage) Searle bought him books to read on the subject and also sent him to a meeting of the Teratology Society. This qualified him to submit 18 of the initial tests to the FDA, in addition to training an assistant and 2 technicians. He certainly must have kept them busy because Searle claimed that 329 teratology examinations were conducted in just 2 days. He estimated that he himself examined about 30 fetuses a day, but officials for the Center for Food and Applied Nutrition could never determine how that was possible." Graves l984, page S5500, Congressional Record l985a)

10. "In each study investigated, poor practices, inaccuracies, and discrepancies were noted in the antemortem phases which could compromise the study." (Gross l985, page S10836 of Congressional Record l985b)

11. "Presenting information to FDA in a manner likely to obscure problems, such as editing the report of a consulting pathologist ... Reporting one pathology report while failing to submit, or make reference to another usually more adverse pathology report on the same slide." (Schmidt l976c, page 4 - 5 of US Senate l976b)

12. Animals were not removed from the room during the twice per month exterminator sprayings. (Gross l985, page S10836 of Congressional Record l985b)

13. Often the substance being tested which was given to the animals was not analyzed or tested for homogeneity. "No records were found to indicate that any treatment mixtures used in the studies were ever tested or assayed for pesticide content ... Running inventory records for either treatment mixtures or the test compounds used in treatment mixtures are not maintained." (Gross l985, page S10836 of Congressional Record l985b)

14. In the aspartame (DKP) 115 week rat study the written observations of the pathology report was changed by the supervising pathologist, Dr. Rudolph Stejskal even though he was not physicially present during the autopsies and could not have verified the observations of the pathologist who did perform the autopsies. The pathologist who did perform some of the autopsies had no formal training for such procedures. (Gross l985, page S10837 of Congressional Record l985b)

15. "Contrary to protocol, slides were not prepared of this (unusual lesions from the aspartame (DKP) study tissue for microscopic examinations ..." (Gross l985, page S10837 of Congressional Record 1985b)

16. "In the aspartame 46 weeks hamster study, blood samples reported in the submission to FDA as 26 week values (for certain specified animals) were found by our investigators as being, in fact, values for different animals which were bled at the 38th week. Many of the animals for which these values were reported (to the FDA) were dead at the 38th week." (Gross l985, page S10838 of Congressional Record l985b)

    "It is apparent from the report, that the Appendix portion contains all the individual (animal) values of clinical lab data available from the raw data file. A selected portion of these values appears to have been used in computing group means (which were reported to the FDA). It is not clear what criteria may have been used for selecting a portion of the data or for deleting the others in computing the means (reported to the FDA)." (Gross l985, page S10838 of Congressional Record l985b)

17. (There were) "clerical or arithmetic errors which resulted in reports of fewer tumors." (Schmidt l976c, page 27 of US Senate l976b)

18. (G. D. Searle) "delayed the reporting of alarming findings." (Schmidt l976c, page 27 of US Senate l976b)

FDA Toxicologist and Task Force member, Dr. Andrian Gross really summed it up (Wilson l985):

"They (G. D. Searle) lied and they didn't submit the real nature of their observations because had they done that it is more than likely that a great number of these studies would have been rejected simply for adequacy. What Searle did, they took great pains to camouflage these shortcoming of the study. As I say filter and just present to the FDA what they wished the FDA to know and they did other terrible things for instance animals would develop tumors while they were under study. Well they would remove these tumors from the animals."

FDA Lead Investigator and Task Force Team Leader, Phillip Brodsky described the l976 FDA ATask Force members as some of the most experienced drug investigators. He went on to state that he had never seen anything as bad as G. D. SEarle's studies (Graves l984; page S5499 of congressional Record l985a).

The report quoted a letter written to G. D. Searle on July 15, l975 from its consultant in reproduction and teratology, Dr. Gregory Palmer, in regards to a review of some of G. D. Searle's reproductive studies submitted to the FDA (Gross l985, page S10838 of Congressional Record l985b):

"Even following the track you did, it seems to me you have only confounded the issue by a series of deficiencies or obvious lack of expertise in animal management. Because of these twin factors, all the careful and detailed examination of fetuses, all the writing, summarization and resummarization is of little avail because of the shaky foundation."

She emphasized that aspartame exists in the marketplace without basic toxicity information. She said there are no data to assess the interactions with DKP, excess phenylalanine, other aspartame metabolites, additives, drugs or other chemicals. In her testimony, Verrett 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 the Congressional Committee "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, hot liquids and also in diet drinks."

And since you're so interested in letting science speak for itself, I would suggest that you also put on your web site the 30 page protest by the National Soft Drink Association which goes into detail about decomposition of aspartame even mentioning the law that forbids putting anything into drinks that decompose or adulterates it. It was made part of the Congressional Record for this reason and can be accessed on the DORway web site.

You mention a GAO Report which, incidentally, can be accessed from the GAO web site in full. It speaks of holding a Public Board of Inquiry to discuss safety issues surrounding aspartame's approval and forming a panel to advise the Commissioner. How come your web site doesn't discuss the fact that this Board of Inquiry not only advised the Commissioner not to approve aspartame but stated it had not been proven safe and the petition is revoked. You will find the summation of that report on http://www.dorway.com and soon we will have the ENTIRE report scanned in for the world to read.

It should be noted at this point that the FDA steadfastly refused to approve aspartame. No Commissioner would do it. But Searle had built a $19 million dollar NutraSweet factory and had $9 million dollars worth of inventory. So they hired now Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, a veteran political operative, who was adept at the vulgar art of public relations. A house politician was precisely what Searle needed to compensate for the damage done by independent researchers concerned about the toxic effects of aspartame. Rumsfeld said he would call in his markers and get aspartame approved. This is documented in the 8-month investigation by United Press International and in the congressional record.

The day after President Reagan took office he appointed Dr. Arthur Hull Hayes as FDA Commissioner. Hayes was intent on getting aspartame approved but the Board of Inquiry told him he couldn't do it because aspartame had not been proven safe and had produced brain tumors. So Ajinomoto came to the rescue by telling Hayes they had done a study and he didn't have to worry about the brain tumor issue. But your study showed brain tumors as well. Hayes acknowledged in his l981 decision that he had only consulted a preliminary report of the Japanese evaluation, and only skimmed it. More serious, Hayes violated federal law by basing approval on the test, as it had not been reviewed by the FDA board. He has refused to talk to the press ever since.

So Ajinomoto, why don't you really tell the world the facts, that the FDA said not to approve aspartame, that it was not proven safe, and had you not interfered it would not be on the market today.

As to this statement: "Furthermore, when questions were raised about the Searle studies, FDA had an outside group of pathologists review crucial aspartame studies. GAO found that throughout aspartame's approval history, the FDA addressed safety issues raised internally and by outside scientists and by concerned citizens."

In reality the failure to challenge the MANUFACTURER'S contract with Universities Associated for Research and Education in Pathology (UAREP) was a great shortcoming. This private group was engaged to determine the factual accuracy of prior aspartame studies - BUT with the stipulation that UAREP "shall not express an opinion regarding either the design or safety significance of these studies, nor make recommendations about the safety of aspartame for human use! Dr. M. Adrian Gross also challenged the credentials of UAREP relative to its ability to assess prior aspartame studies.

And how did it happen? On August 4, l976, G. D. Searle representatives met with the FDA and CONVINCED them to allow G. D. Searle to hire this private agency, UAREP, and pay them $500,000 to "validate" 12 studies. (Gordon l987 page 498 of US Senate l987). A half a million dollars to be sworn to silence!!

Also, since you tell people that aspartame does not get into the blood we have just scanned one of the original studies used as pivotal in the approval of this toxin on http://www.dorway.com/raoreport.pdf. This isthe 52 week oral toxicity study where 7 infant monkeys were fed aspartame. Five had grand mal seizures and one died. I fail to see how this study shows safety. It does say that the grand mal seizures were caused by the HIGH SERUM PHENYLALANINE LEVELS. That's in the blood. And if that's not significant for you, one of the pivotal studies, use a pro-industry book, Aspartame, Physiology and Biochemistry, Marcel Dekker, Inc., New York, L.D. Stegink and L. J. Filer, Jr. l984. This is significantly corporate sponsored.

Page 161: TISSUE DISTRIBUTION OF ORALLY ADMINISTERED ISOTOPICALLY LABELED ASPARTAME IN THE RAT Yoshimasa Matsuzawa and Yuichi O'Hara, Life Science Laboratory, Central Research Laboratories, Ajinomoto Company, Inc. Yokohama, Japan As you notice, this is YOUR OWN WORK!!!

Page 162: RESULTS: Phenylalanine Moiety: "The pattern of distribution of (U-14CPhe) aspartame following its oral administration was very similar to that of (U-14C) phenylalanine after 0.5, 2.6 and 24 hr and 7 days. Thirty minutes after administration of these compounds, very high levels of radioactivity were observed in the lumen of the stomach and upper small bowel. Significant uptake of radioactivity was observed in the pancreas, gastrointestinal mucosa, hair follicles, salivary gland and liver. Radioactivity was observed in the kidney, adrenal gland, bone marrow, spleen and eye. Some radiolabel was localized to the BRAIN, SPINAL CORD (emphasis added) heart, thymus, lung and testes.

As you see, its all a matter of public record. You talk about unfounded controversy, when in fact, there is good reason for the outrage of the public. Aspartame should never have been approved, it is indeed, a chemical poison made up of three neurotoxins. As soon as aspartame was put on the market consumers over-flowed the FDA with complaints. So many complaints that it was admitted in congressional hearings that the FDA was actually referring people to the AIDS Hotline to get rid of them. Senator Orrin Hatch who was paid by Monsanto after they bought Searle in l985 did all he could to prevent congressional hearings and even when he couldn't stop them any longer did a hatchet job so that a bill written by Senator Metzenbaum for the National Institutes for Health to do independent studies on the problems being seen in the population never got out of committee. They had to prevent independent studies because they would have no control over them. And we have documented the flawed industry research.

In l996 when Dr. John Olney made world news over the aspartame/brain tumor issue, it was Dr. Ralph Walton who accompanied him on 60 Minutes with peer reviewed research. He showed that 92% of independent research not controlled or financed by the manufacturer, peer reviewed, showed the problems with aspartame. And if you removed one pro-industry review and 6 studies the FDA had something to do with, it was actually 100%.

Since aspartame was approved there have been organizations warning all consumers off this neurotoxin. Today Mission Possible operations exist in 50 states and 22 countries of the world. It's a hands around the world humanitarian effort to alert the public of the deadly effects of this toxin. Nobody is paid and there is no motive except to save the human race.

There is an Aspartame Toxicity Center and even Aspartame Detoxification Centers to detoxify those who have consumed aspartame. The Trocho Study has shown without a shadow of a doubt that the formaldehyde converted from the wood alcohol accumulates in the cells and damages DNA. When you damage DNA you can destroy the human race. As Dr. James Bowen's papers on web show, aspartame also damages the mitochondria of the cell. Medical reports by Doctors H. J. Roberts and neurosurgeon Russell Blaylock discuss the damage to the cardiac conduction system which can result in sudden death. A new medical text Aspartame Disease: An Ignored Epidemic by H. J. Roberts, M.D., http://www.aspartameispoison.com or http://www.sunsentpress.com has 1038 pages of symptoms and diseases triggered by this neurotoxin including a chapter on drug interactions. To think that we have a deadly chemical poison, a neurotoxic drug, a chemical hypersensitization product marketed in food and drug in 100 countries of the world is a crime against humanity. The chapter on drug interactions shows that aspartame interacts with just about every drug used to treat the problems it triggers.

In the meantime, Monsanto in its flawed research has tried to show that aspartame does not trigger the problems being reported such as seizures. For instance, take their Rowen Study in l995. 16 of the 18 subjects were taking anti-seizure medication. The study consisted of only a single dose of aspartame ingestion, one capsule.!!!! Also capsule administration of aspartame slows the absorption of methanol and may reduce its toxicity somewhat similar to the way ingestion of food with methanol may slightly reduce its toxicity (Posner l975). Capsule administration of aspartame also eliminates the quick absorption of the excitotoxin, aspartic acid (Stegink l987). When aspartic acid is absorbed quickly, it can be excitotoxic (Blaylock l994, Olney l980) especially in conjunction with formaldehyde derived from methanol.

This is sort of tantamount to giving someone a sip of Diet Coke and saying "see, no seizure". This is on Medline as if its was some big deal and now Monsanto can say they have proven aspartame doesn't trigger seizures. In reality all it proves is this study can only apply to people who ingest a single dose of encapsuled aspartame while taking anti-seizure medication. Not only is this study worthless, but key information was not put in the abstract, namely, the fact that the subjects were on anti-seizure medication and that the aspartame was given in capsules.

Yet, when you have 20 years of reactions over and over again from victims using aspartame, recorded in clinical observation by eminent physicians the manufacturer calls the drug reactions - anecdotes.

The modus operandi of NutraSweet has always been to lie and deny and call names. I report these findings and you call me fear mongering. When I lectured for the World Environmental Conference and an email made world news, you heard such words as toxic terrorists! http://www.dorway.com/nomarkle.html tells the whole story.

Physicians reports and books on the dangers of aspartame are rebutted as they are attacked because they have the courage to alert the public of the true facts. These physicians are men of integrity, heroes of the world, who refuse to sell out to industry, and care more about the health of consumers than checks from industry. It is well known in a court of law that for every true scientist or physician who will give the real facts, industry can come up with a physician or scientist to defend them and say just the opposite.

Industry funds the professional organizations and push their propaganda. You mention the MS Foundation and Dr. David Squillacote's notice. This again had to do with when I lectured for the World Environmental Conference, and if this doctor had anything to say he believed in, he would have answered my letters. But he couldn't rebut the facts so he ignored them. It took 6 years from the time I first lectured for the WEC for anyone to ever even contact me. My answers to this woman which included many medical reports is now on http://www.dorway.com/mssocknows.txt for the world to read the truth.

If you call my exposing the records as scare mongering and a disservice, what should we call Ajinomoto and all aspartame manufacturers for poisoning the world, and what kind of service to the world do you call pushing propaganda instead of facts? James Bowen, M.D. wrote the FDA many years ago (on web) and said that aspartame is mass poisoning of the American public and more than 70+ countries of the world (now 100). He said: "..the only responsible action would be to immediately take aspartame off the market, fully disclose its toxicities, offer full compensation to the injured, public and criminally prosecute anyone who participated in the fraudulent placement of aspartame on the marketplace. That includes those who work so diligently to keep it on the market as well." Dr. Bowen is a victim himself suffering with Lou Gehrigs symptoms just like many of the servicemen who served in the Persian Gulf and drank the diet drinks cooking in the 120 degree Arabian sun. A new study has shown Desert Storm Syndrome to be Lou Gehrigs. Aspartame destroys the central nervous system and mimics MS as well as causing Lou Gehrig's symptoms. And a very serious issue is the fact that it is a chemical hypersensitization agent and interacts with vaccines and other toxins and additives. Many on the support groups even react to GM foods which consumers never asked for, Frankenfoods!

Obviously, the issue of the approval of aspartame for market has violated every principle of responsible science and responsible government. First of all, in this country an additive must be inert or non- reactive and here we are with a neurotoxic drug that interacts with just about every drug used to treat the problems it causes. Aspartame interacts with Premarin, Dilantin and like anti-seizure medication, insulin, Dilaudid, L-dopa, antidepressants, Coumadin and cardiac medication for starters. Now at least we have a medical text for physicians and consumers to untie the hands of doctors who were kept from getting the real data that would allow them to diagnose accurately.

And your little PR campaign to try and prevent the press from writing articles won't help you. I give more credit to the press who have excellent investigative reporters and have the ability to distinguish fact from fiction.

I look forward to the day when we get this toxin off the planet and no longer have to worry about babies (as well as adults) suffering seizures, people dropping dead, going blind, getting brain tumors, and suffering from more than the 92 documented symptoms on the FDA list and the many diseases as documented in the new medical text.

Aspartame has destroyed families. As Dr. Bowen said in Aspartame Murders Infants, "At every point in the fertility process aspartame destroys, beginning with the gleam in Mom and Pop's eyes. It ruins female sexual response and induces male sexual dysfunction. Beyond this aspartame disrupts fetal development by aborting it or inducing defects. And if a live child is born aspartame may have heinously damaged the DNA of the baby, cursing future generations. " You didn't even have the decency to put a warning for pregnant women. And you push this toxin on diabetics when you know it can precipitate diabetes, keeps blood sugar out of control, interacts with insulin, destroys the optic nerve and can even cause diabetics to go into convulsions. You market a drug that has wood alcohol or methanol in it which is classified as a narcotic and converts to formaldehyde and formic acid even in the retina of the eye and blinds.

And I'm sure you know about the studies done in South America by Searle and never published where humans developed brain tumors and had grand mal seizures. Some even died. These studies showed aspartame destroys the central nervous system and the brain and even hardens the synovial fluids which accounts for the agonizing joint pain aspartame victims suffer.

Today 100,000 web sites are warning consumers off aspartame and there is no way for you to win. I leave you with a challenge. If you really want the people to have the facts, then put the government records on your web site, the secret trade information (http://www.dorway.com/secrets.html), the protest of the National Soft Drink Association (http://www.dorway.com/nsda.html), part of the Congressional Record, the Bressler Report (FDA audit) (http://www.dorway.com/bressler.txt), the entire investigation by the Center for Disease Control, all 146 pages (http://www.dorway.com/cdctext.txt), the summation of the Board of Inquiry telling the FDA not to approve aspartame (http://www.dorway.com/pboi.txt), FDA toxicologist, Dr. Adrian Gross' letters to Senator Metzenbaum outlining what was found on studies (http://www.dorway.com/gross.txt), testimony before Congress by various physicians including Dr. Louis Elsas, the FDA report of 92 symptoms (http://www.dorway.com/badnews.html), the pivotal 52 week oral toxicity study showing aspartame to be a seizure triggering drug (http://www.dorway.com/raoreport.pdf), Dr. Ralph Walton's peer reviewed research (http://www.dorway.com/peerrev.html), etc. And stay tuned because we are adding even more government records including the entire congressional record. But if you're afraid of the facts and you don't want the public to know the truth, you won't. In that case, we'll just send this letter around the world.

I know one day they will pin metals on the physicians who have had the courage to alert the public, write the books that have exposed the dangers of aspartame and written the reports you have tried to attack. The approval of aspartame will go down in history as one of the greatest scandals in this country, the mass poisoning of the U.S. and 100 countries of the world. You can count on it.

Dr. Betty Martini
Founder, Mission Possible International
9270 River Club Parkway
Duluth, Georgia 30097
770-242-2599
http://www.dorway.com
http://www.whno.net