CITIZENS PETITION
FOR THE RECALL OF ASPARTAME

By Betty Martini
Mission Possible International
9270 River Club Parkway
Duluth, Georgia 30097
Telephone: 770-242-2599
E-Mail: BettyM19@mindspring.com



Posted: 21 May 2005


This Citizens Petition for the Ban of Aspartame was sent via certified mail on June 17, 2002. The law requires they answer in 180 days and to this date remains unanswered. A letter from them in May, 2003 after an inquiring email on their refusal to answer stated they had "competing priorities". The FDA actually stated they had more important things to do then operate within the law and save the world from a deadly neurotoxin. H. J. Roberts, M.D. declared Aspartame Disease to be a global plague and published the medical text, Aspartame Disease: An Ignored Epidemic, www.sunsentpress.com Indeed the FDA has ignored a global plague causing disability and death throughout the world caused by the illegal approval of a deadly neurotoxin. Their own FDA toxicologist, Dr. Adrian Gross, told Congress: "If the FDA violates its own law who is left to protect the public?"


Date: Sat, 15 Jun 2002 03:21:30 -0400
To: RXH@CFSAN.FDA.GOV
From: Betty Martini BettyM19@mindspring.com
Subject: Citizens Petition for the Recall of Aspartame


Dockets Management Branch
Food and Drug Administration
Department of Health and Human Services
Room 1023
12420 Parklawn Drive
Rockville, Maryland 20857


CITIZENS PETITION

The undersigned, Mrs. Betty L. Martini, founder of the global volunteer force, Mission Possible International, submits this petition to the Commissioner of Food and Drugs or Acting Commissioner under 21 CFR 5, 10 to request the Commissioner of Food and Drugs to have recalled the neurotoxic drug, aspartame, masquerading as an additive. Under the new terrorism law, the FDA now has the right to recall dangerous chemicals even without request from the manufacturer.

Statement of Grounds

The approval of aspartame violated many laws which were even admitted by its own FDA toxicologists on site. Marketing a chemical poison for human consumption has resulted in a mass outcry by the public in the United States and many other countries. Even admitted in congressional hearings resulting from this outcry that the FDA was flooded with so many complaints that victims were being reported to the AIDS Hotline. Consumers operations have existed since its approval to alert consumers because of its dangers including one by James Turner, Attorney, in Washington, D.C. Mission Possible International has operations in most states and 22 countries of the world. From Aspartame Victims and Their Friends of Ocala, Florida by Shannon Roth who went blind in one eye to Joyce Wilson's, Aspartame Victims and Their Friends of Georgia, who lost her life to the toxin, they have not stopped. Post Marketing Surveillance Reports from thousands and thousands of victims show such a pattern and predictable symptoms and diseases, that H. J. Roberts, M.D., FACP, FCCP, has declared Aspartame to be a Disease and global plague.

Because the manufacturers, professional organizations funded by the manufacturers, FDA, and front groups, as well as manufacturers using the toxin in food and drug constantly push false and misleading information on aspartame, physicians have found it difficult to diagnose thousands of patients who wonder from doctor to doctor. This in itself is a crime under Title 18, Section 1001 of the Criminal Code, and has caused untold disability and death.

Because of this Dr. H. J. Roberts published an entire 1038 page medical text on the global plague titled Aspartame Disease: An Ignored Epidemic, www.sunsentpress.com or 1 800 814 - 9800. There has continued to be medical books published on the issue by physicians to alert the public since the FDA has refused to do so Excitotoxins: The Taste That Kills by neurosurgeon Russell Blaylock, M.D., is another one.

As an example, the manufacturers have said that aspartame does not get into the blood stream as NutraSweet said in August, l999, "It is physiologically impossible for aspartame to cause brain tumors because it never enters the bloodstream and thus cannot travel to essential organs, including the brain." This was in a news release when it was made public that studies would be carried out on aspartame and brain cancer headed by neurochemist, Dr. Peter Nunn of Kings College in London. However, proof that aspartame gets in the blood stream is even in industry's own pro-aspartame book, significantly corporate sponsored: Aspartame, Physiology and Biochemistry, Marcel Dekker, Inc., New York, L.D. Stegink and L. J. Filer, Jr., l984

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 Co., Inc., Yokohama, Japan.

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.

It has also been proven by the original manufacturer's own study, Searle, used pivotal in the approval of aspartame. This was a 52 week Oral Toxicity Infant Monkey Study (SC-18862). This study orally dosed aspartame to seven infant Rhesus monkeys in work conducted at the University of Wisconsin Medical Center at Madison. This study reported in l972:

"All animals in the medium and high dosage groups exhibited seizure activity. Seizures were observed for the first time following 218 days of treatment. The seizures were of the grand mal type. One monkey, m38 of the high dose group, died after 300 days of treatment. The cause of death was not determined..."

The study correlates brain seizures with high amounts of phenylalanine ingested by the monkeys. The study determined:

"Following the end of the experiment, medium and high dose monkeys were kept under observation for three months. No further convulsions were detected during this period. Elevated levels of phenylalanine in the blood of monkeys fed medium and high levels of aspartame prove that the compound is absorbed into the blood stream. The brain seizures followed. How could FDA claim a "pivotal" study in which all of the medium and high dose monkeys suffer brain seizures, confirm Aspartame's safety for humans?"

So here we have proof by a pro-aspartame industry book and the manufacturer's own study used in the approval of this neurotoxin.

Further, the proof is so well established its published in books on aspartame such as Aspartame (NutraSweet) Is It Safe? by H. J. Roberts, M.D. He writes aspartame is a molecule composed of three components, aspartic acid, methanol and phenylalanine:

Page 30: "After ingestion there is a rapid breakdown and absorption of aspartame within the upper gastrointestinal tract. This results in a prompt rise of the two amino acids in the bloodstream."

Page 32: "Influence of Method of Administration "Both phenylalanine and aspartame concentrations in the blood plasma are significantly higher when aspartame is given as a solution rather than capsule form."

Lying by industry to misinform the public that a chemical poison is safe for human consumption is in violation of Title 18, Section 1001. Disinformation from a powerful industry should be punishable by law.

As Dr. Roberts stated in Aspartame Disease: An Ignored Epidemic, page 862, in discussing "industry's information tyranny" - "Physicians are among its prominent victims owning to the readiness with which large pharmaceutical and chemical companies currently monopolize both research and advertising. A contributory element has been the corrupted passion for seeking "the truth" by corporate-subsidized spin doctors. For example, a major food producer concluded its pamphlet on what health professional should know about aspartame: "The ingredients of aspartame (aspartic acid and phenylalanine methyl ester) occur naturally in the normal diet and, hence, our metabolism is well adjusted to their utilization...Aspartame, even at abuse doses, is safe for adults and children."

"Pro-aspartame apologists have become proficient in deflecting the warnings from health professionals and anti-aspartame activists. Their rhetoric employs terms and phrases such as "pseudoscience," "bogus scare tactics," "self-proclaimed prophets of this hoax who twist the facts," and "a conspiracy babble by flat-earthers." An anti-aspartame activist regarded the apparent addiction to diet sodas of highly critical persons in the media and government as "drinking on the job."

"Various industries have used propagandists posing as consumer advocates in attempts to undermine grassroot organizations of concerned consumers by disseminating disinformation. In the aspartame controversy, they include watchdog organizations touted to be "food police." Similarly, professors of nutrition have asserted the safety of large amounts of aspartame as sodas and tabletop sweeteners taken for a "lifetime." In The Ordeal of Change (Harper & Row 1963), Eric Hoffer emphasized that propaganda and advertising reflect a "general relentless drive to manipulate men."

"The control of medical information by the pharmaceutical industry should be cause for great concern. This has been achieved through the financing of medical research, placing expensive ads in medical journals that otherwise could not stay in business, compiling package inserts for the Physician's Desk Reference, the training of many "detail" men and women, expensive freebies for prescribing physicians, and the selection of physicians with significant prior ties to this industry as editors-in-chief of major journals. The problem becomes compounded by an incestuous relationship between drug firms and the FDA. Ambitious professionals use this agency as a stepping stone to six-figure salaries within the pharmaceutical industry. While on their "tour of duty" at the FDA, they are likely to focus more on relatively minor issues (e.g., denigrating alternative-care practitioners) than disinformation concerning new drugs and supplements."

The FDA has been a large part of the misinformation mill on aspartame telling consumers aspartame is safe when their own Board of Inquiry report said its not (Docket No. 75F-0355), 9/30/80. And stated: "The Board has not been presented with proof of a reasonable certainty that aspartame is safe for use as a food additive under its intended conditions of use. The foregoing constitutes the Board's findings of fact and conclusions of law. Therefore, it is ORDERED that: (1) Approval of the food additive petition for aspartame (FAP 3A2885) is hereby withdrawn. (2) The stay of the effectiveness of the regulation for aspartame, 21 CFR 172.804, is hereby vacated and the regulation revoked.

When I lectured for the World Environmental Conference and an email made world news about the dangers of aspartame, it was the FDA and CDC who got on CNN and tried to say it was a hoax. As one victim said: "They are calling those who tell the truth about aspartame, toxic terrorists, the usual modus operandi of the manufacturer." But the FDA knew I lectured for the World Environmental Conference and had received a copy of my original post on it. Further I had spoken with Dr. Rudolph Harris. Still the FDA told consumers it was all a hoax, lying in the face of facts and reading my invitation to speak and correspondence with Dr. Gaylord of the EPA who gave the keynote address which still remains on http://www.dorway.com/nomarkle.html. The CDC who did the most damning investigation on aspartame which is on http://www.dorway.com shows their cover-up in the issue by simply sending out and having on their web site the summary that contradicts the investigation instead of the actual investigation.

And what misinformation mills like David Emery's Urban Legends who knows its a fact and continues to lie about it. When written by former U.S. Attorney, Ed Johnson, to cease telling consumers its a hoax, Emery began telling consumers even Ed Johnson's letter was a hoax. American Council for Science and Health another front group saying the aspartame issue is a hoax is funded by NutraSweet, National Soft Drink Association, Coke, Searle and Monsanto for starters.

It is a heinous crime to approve a drug as an additive because of its interaction with other drugs and possible death, and in this case aspartame is a neurotoxic drug. Dr. Roberts mentions under interference with drug action (page 468 of Aspartame Disease) that aspartame can alter the action of important drugs. They include coumarin (Coumadin), phenytoin (Dilantin), antidepressants, other psychotropic agents, propranolol (Inderal), methyldopa (Aldomet), throxine (Synthroid) and insulin. This means that aspartame victims don't have a chance because physicians have been lied to, and having no knowledge that aspartame is a drug, can prescribe the very drug that will interact, since it reacts with just about every drug used to treat the problems it causes. If someone had a seizure from aspartame which is so common its epidemic, they would prescribe Dilantin or like drugs and they interact. It is pushed on diabetics and aspartame not only can precipitate diabetes but also interacts with insulin. Aspartame damages the cardiac conduction system and interacts with cardiac medication. The phenylalanine in aspartame not only lowers the seizure threshold but also depletes serotonin, which triggers all kinds of behavioral and psychiatric problems, and aspartame interacts with antidepressants. It can precipitate Parkinson's and interacts with L-dopa. The FDA approved the neurotoxin Redux and FenPhen and if they took this with an aspartame-laced drink, it's a double whammy as mentioned by psychiatrist Dr. Ralph Walton. This could be the reason so many died.

How does aspartame reduce or potentate drug action? Dr. Roberts mentions just a few of the mechanisms on page 469:

Dr. Roberts mentions also drug reactions after the cessation of aspartame saying: "The phenomenon of increased sensitivity to a drug after the removal of some interfering factor is known to clinicians. Examples include sever insulin reactions in diabetics after cure of an infection, and bleeding from coumarin after terminating a drug that influenced its binding to carrier proteins. This type of encounter probably reflects an increase in the "free" forms of such drugs. It occurred, for example, when patients on maintenance coumarin or phenytoin avoid aspartame."

Extremely troubling to the consumer public is the FDA's lack of concern for safe food and drugs and desire to be loyal to industry instead of the public. They have literally turned their back on consumers in the aspartame issue. Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology surveyed 80 people who had brain seizures after consuming aspartame.

Said the Community Nutrition Institute: "These 80 cases meet the FDA's definition of an imminent hazard to the public health, which requires FDA to expeditiously remove a product from the market." In l986 the Community Nutrition Institute then petitioned the FDA to ban aspartame because so many were going blind and having seizures. The FDA presented with either stopping the seizures and blindness in the public or protecting Monsanto chose to sacrifice consumers and refused. Today thousands report seizures and eye deterioration from macular degeneration and retinal detachments to complete blindness. And we are now taking case histories for class action having to do with blindness, seizures and brain tumors and eye deterioration. If you had banned aspartame in l986 all these people would not have sustained these problems, and many are dead because of it.

When consumers complain too much the FDA puts out a message in their propaganda FDA Talk Paper the same old industry propaganda that has no validity and saying they don't want to write about it anymore. Instead of taking care of the problem it has been the modus operandi to lie and deny about it. The FDA has full knowledge aspartame is a chemical poison and any employee telling consumers it's safe should be prosecuted under Title 18, Section 1001 as the FDA tried to do to Searle when they lied to the FDA on the same basis. Unfortunately, in this case Searle was so powerful the U.S. Prosecutors hired on with the defense team and the statute of limitations expired.

The FDA is required by law to answer to a congressman. When Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich asked the FDA to answer our 26 questions attached and on www.dorway.com. It has been over 6 years and they are still unanswered. A packet full of propaganda and Federal Registers will not do. Isn't it usually the guilty who take the 5th.

Aspartame was approved for carbonated beverages by the FDA when even the National Soft Drink Association admitted it was not safe and quoted the law that forbid it. Section 402 of the FDC Act 21 provides a food is adulterated if it contains, in whole or in part "...a decomposed substance or if it is otherwise unfit for food." The National Soft Drink Association in their protest against aspartame approval in l983 recorded this, as found in the Congressional Record of May 7, l985, Page S 5509, Senate.

NSDA knew aspartame decomposes in soft drinks. They objected: "Searle has not demonstrated to a reasonable certainty that aspartame and its degradation products are safe for use in soft drinks...Aspartame is inherently markedly and uniquely unstable in aqueous media. In a liquid, such as a soft drink aspartame will degrade as a function of temperature and pH." S5507

Inferior test methods were used by Searle as NSDA explained: "High pressure liquid chromotography is a far superior analytical method relative to thin layer chromatography and numerous HPLC methods exist for the detection and quantification of amino acids. Searle's choice of TLC over HPLC adversely affected the quality and type of analytical data generated on aspartame and its decomposition products in soft drinks." S5507..."An important decomposition product of aspartame, aspartic acid cannot be detected at all using TLC." S 5508

"The inability to account for as much as thirty-nine percent of aspartame's decomposition products is significant." "The Marked and rapid decomposition of aspartame in soft drinks under temperatures known to prevail is apparent from data in the present record and discussed above in these objections." S5509 (So aspartame could not be legally added to carbonated beverages under Section 402 because it decomposes and NSDA admitted that happens.)

This is the LAW, FDA, and while you're known to serve above it, this has to be answered. How the NSDA was talked into this, I don't know, but I do know industry has its ways. So with full knowledge of the decomposition of aspartame into a witches brew of toxins the pop companies sent aspartame laced pop to sit in the 120 degree Arabian sun for as long as 8 weeks at a time and the troops drank them all day. Aspartame is also a chemical hypersensitization agent and interacts with vaccines. Remember the troops were given Anthrax vaccine not even approved but the acting commissioner at the time Michael Friedman (later hired by Monsanto after he defended them on 60 Minutes) said to go ahead and have them use it. So 40,000 innocent man and women have perished and countless others still suffer disability and brain tumors, and many aspartame symptoms and diseases. Aspartame destroys the central nervous system and mimics MS and causes Lou Gehrigs symptoms. Now after all these years the government admits after a study that Desert Storm Syndrome is Lou Gehrigs symptoms and reinstituted the benefits to the troops. This never would have happened if the FDA had not violated the law.

In keeping with the fact that aspartame was never proven safe, consider the two FDA toxicologists involved, Dr. Adrian Gross and Dr. Jacqueline Verrett, who were on site. Dr. Adrian Gross spoke out against aspartame in the 8/1/85 Congressional Record. Gross said "at least one of the 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. He also testified that because aspartame was capable of producing brain tumors and brain cancer, FDA should not have been able to set an allowable daily intake of the substance at any level.

Dr. Gross said: "...In view of these indications that the cancer causing potential of aspartame is a matter that had 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 and Cosmetic Act?" The Delaney Amendment makes it illegal to allow any residue 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?" Congressional Record SID835:131 (8/1/85)

Instead of obeying the law, it was seen to years later that the Delaney Amendment was appealed. The FDA knew nobody would forget what was done.

Dr. Jacqueline Verrett, the other FDA toxicologist was absolutely appalled at the shenanigans involved in the aspartame approval. She was also a member of an FDA task force that investigated the authenticity of research done by Searle to establish the safety of aspartame. She said she believes the original aspartame studies were "built on a foundation of sand."

She testified in front of a U.S. Senate hearing in l987 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. (Testimony of Dr. Jacqueline Verrett, FDA Toxicologist, before the U.S. Senate committee on Labor and Human Resources regarding "NutraSweet Health and Safety Concerns", Nov 3, l987.

So let's put this in prospective. The Board of Inquiry of the FDA said not to approve it because it wasn't proven safe. One of the two toxicologists said FDA violated the law, and the other said the studies that approved aspartame were built on a foundation of sand, were a disaster and should have been thrown out. The FDA doesn't have a leg to stand on. No wonder all the lying and denying and refusal to answer questions.

Yet in Toxicological Principles For Safety Assessment of Direct Food Additives and Color Additives Used in Foods, Redbook II, Draft 1993, Chapter V, Part C. Neurotoxicity Studies, paragraph 8:

"Because of the impact that nervous system toxicity can have on human health, assessing the neurotoxic potential of a chemical proposed for use in food or color additive should be an essential element in that chemical's toxicological profile..."

Yes, it's very important since it can trigger neurodegenerative disease and kill. Yet the FDA has known that aspartame is a neurotoxic drug for over 20 years while it has been on the market taking the lives of innocent victims and murdering babies in their mother's womb, and done absolutely nothing but lie about the issue. As Arthur Evangelista, former FDA Investigator said about this issue: "...Aspartame (aka: NutraSweet, Equal, etc.) a neurotoxin by nature, is extremely damaging to the central nervous system, and subsequent neural-dependent systems like endocrine and liver functions. That the very fact aspartame is in our food supply, implies an unregulatory agency which better serves the industry that it was supposed to be regulating."

Grounds for recall? They are so vast they fill a 1038 page medical text. Volumes could be written on the FDA's refusal to put out honest facts instead of lies on the subject, and the impact on consumers in 100 countries of the world.

ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL IMPACT:

Dr. H. J. Roberts in Aspartame Disease: An Ignored Epidemic discusses accidents and deaths for starters. Convulsions and blackouts are important causes of driving accidents. Accordingly, they pose major considerations relative to driver licensure and insurability. He says that the cited experiences of pilots who lost their licenses because of aspartame induced seizures underscore this issue. The FAA's position is they can't do anything about it because the FDA approved it. One Captain on American reported 5 deaths of pilots who were heavy users of aspartame including one who died in flight. Crashes of planes considered to have been due to pilots using aspartame have been reported to Mission Possible Aviation. To approve a neurotoxic seizure-triggering drug and have full knowledge of its impact on accidents on both the land and in the air, and still refuse to care or do anything about the issue is emphatic irresponsibility on the part of the FDA.

Consider the medical costs as patients go from physician to physician for diagnosis, and never receive help because with the FDA and industry lying to the medical industry, their hands are tied. They do not make the correlation because they are unaware the FDA approved, for instance, a seizure triggering drug. They have no idea when they prescribe most anti-seizure medication that it can interact with aspartame.

Consider the increased burden on health care facilities and even the costs from an increase of seizure disorders in the elderly as Dr. Roberts discusses. In triggering a host of epidemics health insurance has risen so high the average person can no longer afford it. Needless diagnostic studies and surgery are being done when the only help to the victim is the elimination of aspartame.

The Guardian in England wrote only yesterday about the incredible epidemic of diabetes. It was a "call for urgent action to combat diabetes spread. Dr. Roberts wrote: "Allow me to focus on just one aspect of this "curse visited upon mankind in the next century": the prodigious amount of products containing the sweetening chemical aspartame. They are currently being consumed by an estimated 70 per cent of the US population, usage that is enthusiastically approved by most physicians and dietitians.

In my experience and researches over the past 20 years, however, numerous patients with known diabetes and hypoglycemia ("low blood sugar attacks") have suffered serious metabolic, neurologic, eye, allergic and other complications that could be specifically attributed to using aspartame products. They include the loss of diabetes control, the apparent precipitation of diabetes, the aggravation or simulation of diabetic complications (particularly neuropathy and retinopathy), the intensification of hypoglycemia, and a profound gain of weight -- with dramatic improvement after avoiding aspartame, AND their predictable recurrence shortly after resuming these products. The details and mechanisms have been exhaustively reviewed in my books on the subject. (http://www.sunsentpress.com)."

So what we are dealing with is a product being used by 70% of the population in this country alone that can precipitate diabetes, then keeps it out of control, and also interacts with insulin.

And we are dealing with a product used by this great amount in the population that is a teratogen and abortifacient causing the murder of hundreds of thousands babies as they attempt to thrive in their mother's womb. Autism and ADD are two epidemics alone that arise from aspartame use, and in staggering proportions. This is discussed in Aspartame Disease: An Ignored Epidemic by H. J. Roberts, M.D., and Excitotoxins: The Taste That Kills by neurosurgeon Russell Blaylock, M.D. James Bowen, M.D., said "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 can't listen to radio without hearing constant advertisements for Viagara and products for women as well. With damage to the hypothalamus of the brain and the mitochondria of the cell nobody has a chance.

Brain tumor victims cry out on the Brain Tumor List - "why do so many people you know have brain tumors - where are they coming from." Yet, again, we know aspartame breaks down to diketopiperazine, a brain tumor agent which has triggered brain tumors in original studies and in studies by Searle in l983/84 that they never published, sacrificing people in South America. Some developed seizures, others brain tumors and some died. These studies also explained the agonizing joint pain aspartame victims suffer from as they showed aspartame hardens the synovial fluids. The studies further showed that aspartame destroys the central nervous system and the brain.

And to allow a blinding agent to be marketed for human consumption is simply madness.

The economic and social impact is mind boggling with cries from aspartame support groups from frightened victims suffering anguish, broken marriages and lost jobs. Too sick to work, and some frightened they will die.

Is loyalty to aspartame manufacturers so important to twist the consumer's life with pain, tears, disability, depression, confusion, impoverishment and early death. It's deranging the human gene pool.

ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT:

The environmental impact no doubt is staggering with lost wages, lower productivity of the sick trying to work and services necessary for the sick and improvised. An informant, Monsanto researcher, once said: "The first thing they told me was do not use NutraSweet, it's a poison, and we don't want people out sick. Also notify your family." This same informant worked for a time for Searle after Monsanto bought it and finally quit disgusted because he said, "their research is negotiable".

The Material Safety Data Sheet on aspartame lists the potential adverse effects on the eyes, skin and respiratory tract, along with required personnel protective equipment (including an approved air purifying or mist respiratory) and first aid measures. Even visitors to an aspartame manufacturing plant are advised to wear protective clothing in order to avoid hazardous exposure.

Horror stories come in from people working where aspartame is made and some people have died in these plants including a worker discussed in the journal article: Aspartame: Methanol and the Public Health by Dr. Woodrow Monte. Journal of Applied Nutrition, Volume 36, Number 1, l984.

H. J. Roberts, M.D., in Aspartame Disease: An Ignored Epidemic discusses aspartame as a co-carcinogen and says:

"A potential carcinogenic effect by aspartame in our increasingly complex environment demands study. Others share a similar orientation:

"We believe our scientific and public responsibility must continue to be directed toward identifying those chemicals, mixtures of chemicals and exposure circumstances that present potentially the most predictable carcinogenic (and other toxicologic) hazards to humans..."

In original studies aspartame triggered brain, mammary, uterine, ovarian, thyroid, pancreatic and testicular tumors - for starters.

Dr. Roberts continues giving the possible carcinogenic mechanisms on page 798 of his medical text. He says that many constituents in the human diet are nitrosated within the gastrointestinal tract to form potentially carcinogenic nitroso compounds. Shephard et al (1993) reported mutagenic activity by aspartame after nitrosation, using Salmonella typhimurium as the test organism. The diketopiperazine derivative of aspartame has been incriminated as a tumor-causing chemical. Formaldehyde released from the breakdown of methyl alcohol is known to be carcinogenic. He mentions the potential carcinogenic effects of chronic hyperinsulinemia which he has discussed in prior publications, with special reference to the prostate (Roberts 1967d). Others have implicated hyperinsulinemia in the pathogenesis of breast cancer (Diamanti-Kandarakis 1999). He says that alteration of glucose transport is a characteristic of experimental tumors. Reporting on this phenomenon, and the dramatic increase in total cellular glucose transporter protein, Birenbaum et al (l987) emphasized the induction of such transformation when fibroblasts are starved for glucose.

On page 799 he discusses that increased phenylalanine may play a role. Animal and human studies indicate that restricting dietary phenylalanine decreases tumor growth and metastases (Norris 1990). Also, the brown substances created by the heating of amino acids during cooking may be mutagenic and carcinogenic (Abelson l983). They include a number of DNA-damaging agents.

And the list goes on and on. Dr. Richard Caldecott (l961) of the Atomic Energy Commission said: "By far the most mutagenic agents known to man are chemicals, not radiation. And in this regard, food additives rather than fallout at present levels may present a greater danger."

IN CONCLUSION:

(1) The FDA now has the right to recall dangerous food and drugs, especially under the new terrorist bill. Aspartame has been proven to be a deadly neurotoxic drug and interacts with many drugs, As a chemical hypersensitization agent it also interacts with other dangerous sweeteners and vaccines. Aspartame has a synergistic effect with MSG. See www.truthinlabeling.org It has been proven by the manufacturers own studies to trigger brain tumors and seizures. A new medical text by H. J. Roberts, M.D., Aspartame Disease: An Ignored Epidemic discusses symptoms and diseases triggered by this neurotoxin in a 1038 page medical text. Twenty years of post marketing surveillance reports show that aspartame is a disease because the symptoms are predictable and there is a pattern. A review in the Journal of Neurosurgery on the medical text admits it reads like a PDR of adverse reactions. The only difference is that in a PDR there are a few lines of reactions, not a 1038 page medical text of horror stories. This petition is a demand for recall.

(2) The FDA under the law must answer a congressman. To this day the FDA has refused to answer the 26 questions attached. An FDA Talk Paper and a stack of federal registers is not answering the questions. The FDA must answer these questions for then Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich without fail and under the law.

(3) No drug is safe on the market today because so many of them interact with aspartame. All pharmaceutical companies should be instructed to add a warning that their drugs cannot be used with aspartame because they could react, until it is recalled which should be immediate. The modus operandi of the FDA has been to listen and then ignore the whole subject, tantamount to "have your say, now we won't discuss it again" such as when James Turner, Washington Attorney met with officials of the FDA some years ago. For this reason, this petition is being sent in copy form to lists and web sites all over the Internet, and with this note to add it to all their lists.

As Dr. James Bowen said to the FDA years ago: "Every known metabolite of aspartame is of marked or questionable toxicity and patently unsafe for human use. Methyl alcohol is metabolized to nascent formaldehyde in the eye, nervous system and other metabolically active organs. It immediately attacks and denatures the tissue structure proteins in which it is metabolized to nascent formaldehyde. This stimulates specific organ and subcellar autoimmunity which seems to be a preponderant source of the bad experiences reported by NutraSweet victim. Aspartic acid is a neuroexcitotoxin present in damaging amounts, in its own right at the ADI for aspartame. Simple logic tells one that it will vastly increase the metabolism of methyl alcohol to formaldehyde in the desinosomes of the periventricular cells of the central nervous system, thus focusing the nascent formaldehde attack there. This corresponds well with the symptomalogies often experienced such as Lou Gehrigs Disease, bulbar palsies, neurohormonal disorders, etc. Also visual disturbances, heart palpitations, infertility and fetal loss may be traced to aspartame ingestion. The diketopiperazine issue remains totally unresolved and dangerous. The amino acids that are released by hydrolysis, form eimers and isomers that are either not sufficiently studies, or undesirable pathological states such as Alzheimer's Disease.

(4) The FDA must instruct all employees to stop lying and denying in the issue on aspartame. It has been proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that aspartame is not safe and they should tell the truth to the consumer. Dr. Ralph Walton wrote a paper on peer reviewed research. Ninety two percent of independent unbiased studies showed problems with aspartame. Only industry research said aspartame was safe. That could not be if problems are found when the manufacturer is not controlling or funding the research. In fact, if you remove the 6 studies that the FDA had something to do with and 1 pro-industry review, it would be 100% of independent research showing problems with aspartame.

An example of industry funded and controlled research is the Rowen Study, 1995. Sixteen of the 18 subjects were taking anti-seizure medication during the study. The aspartame was given in capsules so that instead of spiking the plasma phenylalanine level and significantly changing the phenylalanine/LNAA ratio the phenylalanine was absorbed very slowly - more like what happens when ingesting food (Stegink l987). These researchers discussed in detail the issue of plasma phenylalanine and LNAA levels.

It was particularly absurd is that they gave the aspartame in capsules even though they cited industry research (Burns 1990) which proves capsule administration of aspartame eliminates the spike in plasma phenylalanine levels! Simply stated, the researchers were pretending to test the hypothesis that phenylalanine/LNAA ratio changes would cause seizures, but they knowingly administered aspartame in a way that eliminated the possibility of a large change in plasma phenylalanine levels and phenylalanine/LNAA ratios.

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 1975). 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 1994, Olney 1980) especially in conjunction with formaldehyde derived from methanol.

The study consisted of only single dose of aspartame ingestion! The results of this study only apply to people who ingest a single dose of encapsulated 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 subject were on anti-seizure medication and that the aspartame was given in capsules.

Why is it that FDA can accept this absurd research from an aspartame manufacturer but disregards all the damaging effects shown on unbiased, independent peer reviewed research?

(5) As Dr. Bowen told the FDA many years ago: "There is the issue of the approval of aspartame for market, which has violated every principle of responsible science and responsible government. " When the FDA received this note which had to do with labeling they sent an agent to see Dr. Bowen. The agent was not concerned with the fact aspartame is mass poisoning of the public, only that Dr. Bowen brought it to their attention. The agent did not want to accept the other 30 cases Dr. Bowen had to present them. It's eighteen years later, and we're presented with a global plague that would not exist if the FDA had acted on this issue when they got Dr. Bowen's note.

This is an open Petition for recall of aspartame, being sent by certified mail, but also being sent to saturate the global Internet. This way the world can read it as well and send it to their congressman. The issue for the FDA is to recall aspartame, and if the FDA chooses to defend the manufacturer instead of protecting the lives of the people, that Congress take action immediately. Everybody receiving this send a copy to their congressman.

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