IUBio

Betty Martini (fwd)

Robert Rogoff rrogoff at ix.netcom.com
Fri Jul 14 16:43:57 EST 1995


Betty Martini <betty at noel.pd.org> wrote:

>Regarding this posting that I did - there is an error, accidently hit 
>sent button before I could correct.  Commissioner Hayes of the FDA 
>resigned in September 1983 not 1981.  He then went to work for 
>Burson-Marsteller Searle's public relations firm.  Hayes is then 
>unavailable to the press for the next ten years.  This happened after the 
>approval of carbonated beverages.  The Congressional Record on the point 
>of carbonated beverages (Protest of the National Soft Drink Assn) said 
>they used the wrong test when the right one was available, did not pick 
>up aspartic acid, used the wrong solution (a buffered solution instead of 
>beverage matrix), didn't test for breakdown products (a witches brew of 
>formaldehyde, formic acid (ant sting poison) and DKP (a brain tumor agent),
>and didn't test for temperature elevation.  At 86 degrees aspartame 
>liberates methanol in the can.


I find at this time I can and must add yet more bad information to
this thread, since its overwhelming nature should convince any
professional reading this of its empirical veracity by now. So we must
be vigilant for the methanol leach out the aluminum cans (which by law
contain a very legible warning that aspartame should not be used by
people with phenylkentonuria).  But I am not in a good position to
search seizure literature involving persuasive nervous and/or
behavioral components of this magnetude--can anyone else be doing that
out there?

It has come to my attention an actual aspartame =death= was reported
in the H.J. Roberts book _Apartame: Is it Safe?_ due to
phenylketonuria (PKU, the inability to metabolize phenylalanine).  If
you still think aspartame might not be dangerous consider before it is
bonded to the wood ester becoming a compound which may or may not have
similar effects as its constituents once catabolized, it is actually
the amino acid phenylalanine, more or less.  So if you or anyone you
know suffer from the rare metabolic genetic disease PKU, aspartame is
dangerous, just as the FDA says it is, right there on the cans.


>In November 1984 The Center for Disease Control reviewed 213 of 592 cases 
>of aspartame complaints. Ages of the complainants ranged from four months 
>to 77 years; 77% were between the ages of 21 and 60 years, 75% were 
>female, and 94% were white.  Twenty-eight percent reported repeated 
>episodes of symptoms and 26 people experienced identical symptoms.  Some 
>of the reported symptoms included:  aggressive behavior, disorientation, 
>hyperactivity, extreme numbness, excitability, memory loss, loss of depth 
>perception, liver impairment, cardiac arrest, seizures, suicidal 
>tendencies, severe mood swings and death.  The CDC recommended future 
>investigations of aspartame investigate the neurological and behavioral 
>problems and focus on symptoms as headaches, mood alterations and 
>behavior changes.  Frederick L. Trowbridge adds an executive summary to 
>the report which conflicts with the information in the report.  He 
>states, "Currently available information, based on data with limitations 
>as described in the report, indicated a wide variety of complaints that 
>are generally of a mild nature.  Although it may be that certain 
>individuals have an unusual sensitivity to the product, these data do not 
>provide evidence for the existence of serious, widespread, adverse health 
>consequences to the use of aspartame."  (Center for Disease Control, 
>Division of Nutrition, Center for Health Promotion and Education.  
>"Evaluation of Consumer Complaints Related to Aspartame Use." (November, 
>1984".

592 case studies available to investigate -- Sounds quite a subject
study.

>On December 21, 1988 Senator Metzenbaum issues a press release saying 
>senators should not approve the appointment of Sam Skinner as Department 
>of Transportation secretary without an inquiry concerning Skinner's 
>failure, as U. S. district attorney in the Northern Illinois District to 
>pursue allegations about fradulent testing of NutraSweet.  Metzenbaum 
>raises the issue of Skinner accepting a position with Searle's law firm, 
>Sidley and Austin, during the time the FDA asked Skinner to review 
>allegations of fradulent safety tests by Searle and urges the Senate to 
>convene a grand jury to investigate the charges.  (Sen. Howard Metzenbaum 
>press release of December 21, 1988)  The district attorney goes to work 
>for the godfather?!

Sidly and Austing has Mob ties?!

>On January 25, 1989 Senator Metzenbaum issues a press release saying that 
>Skinner acknowledged he may have made mistakes in the NutraSweet 
>investigation, but Metzenbaum says he supports Skinner's nomination as 
>secretary of the Department of Transportation.  Could this be the reason 
>that the FAA does not supply assistance in warning pilots of the many 
>grand mal seizures that are on record from pilots who had grand mal 
>seizures in the cockpit of commercial airliners from consuming NutraSweet?

I hardly think Metzenbaum's support of Skinner's nomination had much 
influence over the FAA in any regard, let alone supplying assistance
in warning pilots of the many grand mal seizures that are on record
from pilots who had grand mal seizures in the cockpit of commercial
airliners from consuming NutraSweet(tm).  I wonder if the lack of
warning of grand mal seizures suggests an indisputable aura of having
been "spiked," i.e., censored by news editors (spiking a story is
often due to reasons such as journalists being too yellow to expose
information for fear of readership just not buying issues bearing an
unusual amount of normal disinterest).

>On February 28, 1994 The Department of Health and Human Services report 
>on adverse reactions attributed to aspartame and lists 6,888 complaints 
>including 649 reported by the Centers for Disease Control and 1,305 
>reported by the FDA.  Aspartame accounts for the majority (75.7%) of all 
>the complaints in the Adverse Reaction Monitoring System.

Why would a DHHS report have any aspartame attribution?  The FDA
accounted for a majority of adverse aspartame reports, thus a minority
could not be accounted for?  Does this mean they did not occur or
merely were not substantiated because of elicited not spontaneous
reports?  Either way, this is certainly worthy of throrough
documentation and I hope when you put it up on your web page you'll
report the URL in all the groups where you've discussed your problem
findings re aspartame.

>The report of April, l995 and list over 10,000 complaints.  In June of 
>this year the FDA announced that they would no longer compile complaints 
>on aspartame.  Most people don't even report complaints to the FDA, they 
>just stop using the product when they have a reaction.  However, 
>complaints continue to come in by the thousands and are recorded by the 
>ASPARTAME CONSUMER SAFETY NETWORK, WORLDWIDE PILOT HOTLINE and MISSION 
>POSSIBLE.  Sleeping are federal regulators who turn a blind eye and deaf 
>ear to complaints!

Fascination research.  I suggest you email the Congressional Report to
your elected representatives at once! 

>Betty Martini
>Domain:  betty at pd.org
>UUCP:  ...!emory!pd.org!betty

>On Thu, 13 Jul 1995, Betty Martini wrote:

Quoting your own previous post, just to make sure it is relevant to
the thread!Great idea!

>> LET'S SEE WHAT YOU MAKE OF THE FOLLOWING FACTS, AS REPORTED 4/20/95 BY
>> THE DEPT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES ON
>> 
>>         "SYMPTOMS ATTRIBUTED TO ASPARTAME IN COMPLAINTS SUBMITTED TO FDA*"
>>            *Some cnsumers described more than one symptom attriuted 
>>              
>>            Headache                       1,847
>>            Dizziness/poor equilibrium       735
>>            Change in Mood                   656 
>>            Vomiting or Nausea               647
>>            Abdominal Pain & Cramps          453
>>            Change in Vision                 362
>>            Diarrhea                         330
>>            Siezures and Convulsions         290
>>            Memory Loss                      255
>>            Fatigue, weakness                242   (Chronic Fatigue Syndrome?)
>>            Other Neurological               230
>>            Rash                             226
>>            Sleep Problems                   201
>>            Hives                            191
>>            Change in Heart Rate             185
>>            Itching                          175
>>            Grand Mal                        174    (add to siezures, above)
>>            Numbness, Tingling               172
>>            Local swelling                   114
>>            Change in activity level         113    (see Fatigue, above)
>>            Difficulty Breathing             112
>>            Oral sensory changes             108
>>            Change inmenstraul pattern       107
>>            Symptoms reported by less 
>>                than 100 complaints        1,812     GRAND TOTAL:  9,737!

What I make of it is it looks like a typical distribution of
symptomatology from half a double-blind study (either the control
group or the one receiving placebo; or else even the ones administered
a drug).  But don't let that deceive me.

>> 
>> This catalogue of misery represents more than 75% of the complaints the 
>> FDA has received on any food additive.  Now they've closed the reporting
>> window, according to a report I received last week; they're not accepting
>> additional complaints.  When you smell smoke do you wait till the house is
>> ablaze before investigating for yourself?

Is that a rhetorical question???

>> 
>> January 10, 1977 in a 33 page letter FDA Chief Counsel Richard Merrill 
>> recommended to US Attorney Sam Skinner that a grand jury investigate
>> Searl for concealing material facts and making false statements in reports
>> calling attention to studies on the effect of NSweet on monkeys & hamsters.
>> February 2, 1977 Skinner is offered a job with Sidley & Austin, Searl's 
>> law firm and the case was dropped. 
>> 
>> After overruling the findings of a public board of inquiry on 7/15/81
>> to approve NutraSweet for dry products Dr. Arthur Hull Hayes, Jr, FDA
>> Commissioner hired on with Burson-Marsteller, Searl/NutraSweet's\
>> public relations firm as "Senior scientific consultant."  Scientific
>> Consultant for a PR firm: to understand that just think of an Art Director
>> for a Pig Farm.  

Burston and Marstellar is a Pig Farm?!  Well, yes its located in the
Midwest prarielands, except its in the part of the Midwest on
Chicago's Michigan Avenue a few blocks away from Bloomingdales but
keep up the good work, we should give mistakes in research the benefit
of the doubt or else we might end up with another Thalidomide or even
Prozac!

>> 
>> FDA = FATAL DRUGS ALLOWED!
>> 
>> Betty Martini
>> Domain:  betty at pd.org
>> UUCP:  ...!emory!pd.org!betty
>> 
>> 
>> 





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