April 6, 2004
SACRAMENTO, California,
Lawsuits were filed in three separate California courts
against twelve companies who either produce or use the artificial
sweetener aspartame as a sugar substitute in their products. The suits
were filed in Shasta, Sonoma and Butte County, California.
The suits allege that the food companies committed fraud
and breach of warranty by marketing products to the public such as
diet Coke, diet Pepsi, sugar free gum, Flintstone's vitamins, yogurt
and children's aspirin with the full knowledge that aspartame, the
sweetener in them, is neurotoxic.
Aspartame is a drug masquerading as an additive. It
interacts with other drugs, has a synergistic and additive effect
with MSG, and is a chemical hyper-sensitization agent. As far back
as 1970, Dr. John Olney founded the field of neuroscience called excitotoxicity
when he did studies on aspartic acid, which makes up 40% of aspartame,
and found it caused lesions in the brains of mice. He made world news
on the aspartame/brain tumor connection in l996. Dr. Ralph Walton,
Professor and Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry, Northeastern
Ohio Universities College of Medicine has written of the behavioral
and psychiatric problems triggered by aspartame-caused depletion of
serotonin.
Aspartame causes headache, memory loss, seizures, vision
loss, coma and cancer. It worsens or mimics the symptoms of such diseases
and conditions as fibromyalgia, MS, lupus, ADD, diabetes, Alzheimer's,
chronic fatigue and depression.
Aspartame liberates free methyl alcohol. The resulting
chronic methanol poisoning affects the dopamine system of the brain
causing addiction. Methanol, or wood alcohol, constitutes one-third
of the aspartame molecule and is classified as a severe metabolic
poison and narcotic.
Recent news is full of reports of world-class athletes
and other healthy consumers of aspartame suddenly dropping dead. Sudden
death can occur from aspartame use because it damages the cardiac
conduction system.
Dr. Woodrow Monte in the peer reviewed journal, Aspartame:
Methanol and the Public Health, wrote: "When diet sodas and soft drinks,
sweetened with aspartame, are used to replace fluid loss during exercise
and physical exertion in hot climates, the intake of methanol can
exceed 250 mg/day or 32 times the Environmental Protection Agency's
recommended limit of consumption for this cumulative poison."
The effects of aspartame are documented by the FDA's
own data. In 1995 the agency was forced, under the Freedom Of Information
Act, to release a list of ninety-two aspartame symptoms reported by
thousands of victims. This is only the tip of the iceberg. H. J. Roberts,
MD, published the medical text "Aspartame Disease: An Ignored Epidemic"
-- 1,000 pages of symptoms and diseases triggered by this neurotoxin
including the sordid history of its approval.
Since its discovery in 1965, controversy has raged over
the health risks associated with the sugar substitute. From laboratory
testing of the chemical on rats, researchers have discovered that
the drug induces brain tumors. On Sept 30, l980 the Board of Inquiry
of the FDA concurred and denied the petition for approval. In l981,
the newly appointed FDA Commissioner, Arthur Hull Hayes, ignored the
negative ruling and approved aspartame for dry goods. As recorded
in the Congressional Record of 1985, then CEO of Searle Laboratories
Donald Rumsfeld said that he would call in his markers to get aspartame
approved. Rumsfeld was on President Reagan's transition team and a
day after taking office appointed Hayes. No FDA Commissioner in the
previous sixteen years had allowed Aspartame on the market.
In 1983, aspartame was approved for use in carbonated
beverages. Today it is found in over 5000 foods, drinks and medicines.
Neurosurgeon Russell Blaylock, MD, author of "Excitotoxins:
The Taste That Kills" (http://www.russellblaylockmd.com) wrote about
the relationship between aspartame and macular degeneration, diabetic
blindness and glaucoma (all known to result from excitotoxin accumulation
in the retina).
All of these neurodegenerative diseases are worsened
by aspartame. In addition, we now have evidence that excitotoxins
play a major role in exacerbation of MS and other demyelinating disorders
including trigeminal neuraliga. Blaylock says that new studies show
excitotoxins trigger significant elevation of free radicals in the
lining (endothelial cells) of arteries, which means that aspartame
will increase the incidence of heart attacks and strokes (atherosclerosis).
In original studies, aspartame has triggered brain,
mammary, uterine, ovarian, testicular, thyroid and pancreatic tumors.
Defendants in the lawsuits include Coca-cola, PepsiCo,
Bayer Corp., the Dannon Company, William Wrigley Jr. Company, ConAgra
Foods, Wyeth, Inc., The NutraSweet Company, and Altria Corp. (parent
company of Kraft Foods and Philip Morris).
Plaintiffs have asked for an injunction to stop companies
from producing, manufacturing, processing, selling or using aspartame.
Plaintiffs in all three cases are seeking a jury trial.
If you would like to schedule someone from the National
Justice League for an interview, please call or fax at 208-246-1171.
This release is issued by courtesy of: WORLD NATURAL
HEALTH ORGANIZATION
(for further information on this Breaking News and History
of Aspartame)
http://www.wnho.net
NATIONAL JUSTICE LEAGUE
http://www.nationaljusticeleague.com
2205 Hilltop Dr. Ste. 2022 Redding, Ca 96002
Phone 208-246-1171 E-mail: :info@nationaljusticeleague.com
FOR INFORMATION ON ASPARTAME:
http://www.dorway.com
http://www.wnho.net
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