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market-farming - Aspartame, and food approval as usual

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Chronological Thread  
  • From: "Jill Taylor Bussiere" <jdt AT itol.com>
  • To: "Market Farming" <market-farming AT franklin.metalab.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Aspartame, and food approval as usual
  • Date: Sun, 25 Aug 2002 11:35:30 -0500


This article is another example in why you might want to grow food, why you
might not trust government approval, etc. The Rumsfeld connection is
interesting too. - Jill

Excerpts below - the entire article can be found at:

http://www.stevia.net/aspartame.htm

The Aspartame/NutraSweet Fiasco
by James S. Turner

Many health-conscious people believe that avoiding aspartame, found in over
5000 products under brand names such as Equal and NutraSweet, can improve
their quality of life. The history of this synthetic sweetener's approval
by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), including a long record of
consumer complaints and the agency's demonstrated insensitivity to public
concern, suggests they're right.

In October 1980 the Public Board of Inquiry (PBOI) impaneled by the FDA to
evaluate aspartame safety found that the chemical caused an unacceptable
level of brain tumors in animal testing. Based on this fact, the PBOI ruled
that aspartame should not be added to the food supply.

This ruling capped 15 years of regulatory ineptitude, chicanery and
deception by the FDA and the Searle drug company, aspartame's discoverer
and manufacturer (acquired by Monsanto in 1985), and kicked off another two
decades of maneuvering, manipulating and dissembling by FDA, Searle and
Monsanto.
[Many paragraphs snipped]

In January 1981 Rumsfeld told a sales meeting, according to one attendee,
that he would call in his chips and get aspartame approved by the end of
the year. On January 25th, the day the new president took office, the
previous FDA commissioner's authority was suspended, and the next month,
the commissioner's job went to Dr. Arthur Hull Hayes.

Transition records do not show why the administration chose ***Hayes, a
professor and Defense Department contract researcher.*** In July Hayes,
defying FDA advisors, approved aspartame for dry foods -- his first major
decision. In November 1983 the FDA approved aspartame for soft drinks --
Hayes' last decision.






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