that aspartame causes a dose-dependent increase in cancers (lymphomas,
leukemias and breast cancers) when consumed at levels approaching
those consumed by humans in diet soft drinks. Specifically, the study
shows (reprinted from the abstract):
a) a significant dose-related increase of malignant tumor-bearing
animals in males, in particular in the group treated at 2000 ppm; b) a
significant increase of the incidence in lymphomas/leukemias in males
treated at 2000 ppm and a significant dose-related increase of the
incidence of lymphomas/leukemias in females, in particular in the
group treated at 2000 ppm; c) a significant dose-related increase of
the incidence of mammary cancer in females, in particular in the group
treated at 2000 ppm. Conclusions. The results of this carcinogenicity
bioassay not only confirm, but also reinforce the first experimental
demonstration of [aspartame's] multipotential carcinogenicity at a
dose level close to the acceptable daily intake (ADI) for humans.
Furthermore, the study demonstrates that when lifespan exposure to
[aspartame] begins during fetal life, its carcinogenic effects are
increased.
The study, entitled"Lifespan Exposure to Low Doses of Aspartame
Beginning During Prenatal Life Increases Cancer Effects in Rats"has
been accepted for publication in the peer-reviewed
journalEnvironmental Health Perspectives (EHP), the most widely-read
environmental science journal in the world.
This is the second study conducted by the Ramizzini Foundation
documenting the cancer-causing effects of aspartamein animals. Most
sane people, when faced with such evidence, would ask the obvious
questions: Could aspartame also cause cancer in humans? Should we
review the safety of aspartame just in case?
Shutting down good science to protect profitsVirtually the entire
health and medical system in the United States is not interested in
these questions. Following the publication of this study, the U.S.
Food and Drug Administration issued a statement flatly denying
aspartame poses any safety risk whatsoever, rejecting the idea that
its safety or approval as a food ingredient should be reviewed at all.
Specifically, FDAspokesperson Michael Herndon said, "...the FDA finds
no reason to alter its previous conclusion that aspartame is safe as a
general purpose sweetener in food."
In other words, the FDA is not interested in any new science that
might challenge a decision it already made. Long live
scientific-sounding dogma!
As reported by the CSPI in a recent press release,According to a 1996
report in the Minneapolis Star Tribune, the FDA rejected repeated
proposals by NIEHS to test aspartame using more modern methods than
were originally used. David Rall, the former director of NIEHS and its
National Toxicology Program, said, "any compound that is that widely
used needs to be retested with modern methods every once in a while."
The State of California, too, has urged new testing of aspartame. The
FDA also rejected NIEHS's proposal to test acesulfame potassium, which
CSPI says was "abysmally tested" by its manufacturer and showed signs
of causing cancerin animals.
Clearly, the FDA only hears what it wants to hear when it comes to
protecting the highly profitable aspartame market. Those who have
studied a bit of aspartame history know that aspartame was pushed
through the FDA by none other than Donald Rumsfeld. Click here to read
more articles on aspartame and its dubious history.Since the very
beginning, the FDA has done everything in its power to protect the
aspartame industry, including denying approval for the natural herbal
sweetener stevia as a way to suppress the competition and protect the
market for corporate-manufactured chemical sweeteners like aspartame.
CSPI urges re-evaluation of aspartame safetyThis latest study on
aspartame and cancer caused the CSPI to issue a public press release
calling for the FDA to review the study to determine whether aspartame
is really safe. CSPI also downgraded its rating on aspartame and is
now recommending that everyone should avoid using aspartame.
(For the record, I've been recommending people avoid aspartame since I
first began writing about nutrition. The toxicity of this chemical
sweetener was obvious to me, and in my opinion there is no safe dose
of a substance that breaks down into formaldehyde in the human body.
In my view, aspartame is an obvious neurotoxin, not to mention its
cancer-promoting effects. No one should consume it, and children or
expectant mothers should avoid it like a poison.)
Also reported by CSPI:Among those who today called on FDA Commissioner
Andrew von Eschenbach to review the new aspartame study are former
Occupational Safety and Health Administration officials John Froines
(now at UCLA) and Peter F. Infante (now at George Washington
University); James Huff, current Associate Director for Chemical
Carcinogenesis at the National Institute of Environmental Health
Sciences (NIEHS); and Kamal M. Abdo, a toxicologist formerly at the
National Toxicology Program of the NIEHS.
Let's poison America!With its stubborn refusal to even review the
safety record on aspartame, the FDA seems to be shouting out loud,
"Let's poison America!" Of course, the FDA has no intention of
initiating anything resembling real scientific scrutiny on aspartame
becauseaspartame was never proven safe in the first place!It was
force-fed through the FDA's approval process based purely on
distorted, junk science constructed to win approval for a chemical
that would earn billions of dollars for powerful corporations (and the
powerful, evil bastards who run them).
And ever since, aspartame has been poisoning Americans each and every
day, contributing to seizures, blindness, migraine headaches, vision
problems, neurological disorders and possibly even cancers. The fact
that no health authority in America is interested in taking a new look
at the safety of aspartame is nothing short of astonishing. That is,
until you consider the fact that most medical authorities suffer from
a severe case of Groupthink and posses no ideas other than the ones
spoonfed them by their politically-motivated bosses. It takes real
courage to break with the herd and actually state the obvious these
days. Most people are satisfied just to go along with whatever the
masses say, even if it makes no sense.
Some people call this refusal by the FDA to review aspartame's safety
an "oversight" or "mistake" on the part of the agency. Who are they
kidding? I call ita crime against the People of America, because to
knowingly allow a dangerous, cancer-causing, nerve-damaging chemical
to be used in the national food supply -- even while receiving tens of
thousands of health complaints from the people consuming aspartame --
is nothing less than negligent homicide. It's a felony, and those
responsible for allowing this poison to contaminate America's food
supply are, indeed, unindicted felons who deserve to be arrested and
prosecuted for their crimes. (A fitting punishment, as always, would
be to force-feed them high doses of aspartame and see what happens. If
it's really as safe as they claim, there's no harm, is there?)
Anybody with a brain that still functions in this country -- and I
admit that number is shrinking by the hour -- knows that all the
pro-aspartame studies upon which the FDA based its previous safety
approval were partially or fully funded by the corporations making
money from the sale of aspartame. The entire history of aspartame
boils down to corruption, influence and profit-mongering.
There is nothing resembling scientific scrutiny in the aspartame
debacle. Nearly every decision that has been made about aspartame by
government regulators or private industry has been apolitical
decision, not a public safetydecision. There is nothing resembling
public safety still operating at the Food and Drug Administration
anymore.
Add aspartame to the FDA's Hall of Shame, right alongside Vioxx,
Rezulin and the ordered destruction of recipe books that dared to
mention the stevia herb as an ingredient. It's just one more way in
which the FDA continues to betray the American people and subject them
to life-threatening ingredients that any honest Food and Drug
Administration would have banned long ago.
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