For those of your readers who might sometimes be concerned about their own health and about Consumer Protection in general, the Hawaii House of Representatives has moved forward an extraordinary Resolution asking the FDA to rescind the approval for Aspartame.
This Resolution is particularly auspicious and significant because both the Chair and the Vice Chair of the House Health Committee, as well as the Vice Chair of the Consumer Protection and Commerce Committee, have signed on as cosponsors. This means the measure will receive a scheduled hearing in the House Health Committee, something that was denied last year by Senate Health Chairman David Ige for the Senate Resolution, as well as the Senate Bill to ban aspartame outright. It will go to House Finance Committee after the Health Committee referral.
The text of the Resolution follows, and although perhaps tedious and precise to some, clearly indicates the reasons that such a recinding of aspartame's approval by the FDA is appropriate and long overdue, an approval which to its credit, the FDA rejected for many years before it was forced in 1981 by then President of G.D. Searle, Donald Rumsfeld.
[You personally could write in support of this long overdue and obvious imperative to Margaret Hamburg, M.D., FDA Commissioner, 5400 Fisher's Lane, Rockville Md., or to commissioner@
Measure Title: REQUESTING REVIEW OF EXISTING REPORTS AND STUDIES RELATED TO ASPARTAME AND RECISSION OF APPROVAL OF ASPARTAME FOR UNITED STATES MARKETS.
Report Title: Aspartame, Approval, Food and Drug Administration
Introducer(s):
The Prime Sponsor is Representative Mele Carroll, Chairman of Hawaiian Affairs, representing East Maui (from Paia and Haiku to Hana and Kaupo), Lana'i, Moloka'i, Kalaupapa, and Kaho'olawe.
These are the leadership positions held by the cosponsors:
Angus McKelvey: Economic Revitalization, Business, & Military Affairs (Chair)
Maile Shimabukuoro:
Karen Awana: Transportation (Vice-Chair)
Della Au Belatti, J.D.: Member Health, Judiciary
Tom Brower: Human Services (Vice-Chair)
Jerry Chang: Higher Education (Chair)
Corrine Ching: Member, Environmental Protection, Higher Education
Denny Coffman: Energy & Environmental Protection (Vice-Chair)
Cindy Evans: Member, Economic Revitalization, Business, & Military Affairs
Faye Hanohano: Public Safety (Chair)
Sharon Har: Interim Task Force on Smart Growth (Chair)
Ken Ito: Water, Land, & Ocean Resources (Chair)
Michael Y. Magaoay: Member, Interim Task Force on Standards of Conduct
Joey Manahan: Tourism, Culture, & International Affairs (Chair)
Hermina Morita: Energy & Environmental Protection (Chair)
Mark Nakashima: Higher Education (Vice-Chair)
Scott Nishimoto: Health (Vice-Chair)
Roland Sagum III: Member, Finance
Roy Takumi: Education (Chair)
Glenn Wakai Consumer Protection & Commerce (Vice-Chair)
Ryan Yamane: Health (Chair)
The text is not yet posted on the Hawaii Legislature website, but this is the identical text from Senate Concurrent Resolution 191 from 2008:
SENATE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
REQUESTING THE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES TO REVIEW EXISTING REPORTS AND STUDIES RELATED TO ASPARTAME, AND REQUESTING THE UNITED STATES FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION TO RESCIND APPROVAL OF ASPARTAME FOR UNITED STATES MARKETS.
WHEREAS, aspartame was originally developed as a drug to treat peptic ulcers; and
WHEREAS, manufacturers state that aspartame is made up of forty per cent aspartic acid, fifty per cent phenylalanine, and ten per cent methanol; and
WHEREAS, aspartic acid is a nonessential amino acid that is used by the body to initiate apoptosis or cell death in aging cells, and that excess aspartic acid from aspartame consumption causes apoptosis in healthy cells that can destroy healthy tissue, especially in the brain; and
WHEREAS, phenylalanine is an essential amino acid found naturally in protein but when isolated becomes neurotoxic, lowers the seizure threshold, depletes serotonin triggering psychiatric and behavioral problems, and interacts with antidepressants and other drugs; and
WHEREAS, methanol is a severe metabolic poison classified as a narcotic that converts to formaldehyde and formic acid, and can embalm living tissue and damage DNA; and
WHEREAS, aspartame metabolites include formaldehyde, a "class A" carcinogen, diketopiperazine, a brain tumor agent, and formic acid; and
WHEREAS, in 1974, the United States Food and Drug Administration approved aspartame as an artificial sweetener, but asked its manufacturer Searle to hold back from selling it on the market until further tests could be made with regards to its safety; and
WHEREAS, scientific data revealed that there was a problem with aspartame safety data and the United States Food and Drug Administration withdrew its approval; and
WHEREAS, in 1975, the United States Food and Drug Administration initiated an investigation into Searle's laboratory practices and discovered fraud in scientific experiments as well as manipulated data giving favorable results proving aspartame to be safe; and
WHEREAS, the results of this investigation are included in what is called "The Bressler Report" by Jerome Bressler; and
WHEREAS, in 1980, Dr. John Olney submitted scientific data to a United States Food and Drug Administration Public Board of Inquiry showing that aspartic acid, the excitotoxic ingredient in aspartame, caused holes in the brains of mice; and
WHEREAS, Dr. John Olney stated that it warranted special emphasis that excitotoxins act by an acute but silent mechanism requiring only a single exposure to toxic concentrations for CVO neurons to be quietly destroyed, that clearly Searle failed to establish the safety of their product, aspartame, for use in children's food, and that all age comparative data support the following conclusions:
WHEREAS, in 1980, the Public Board of Inquiry unanimously voted against aspartame approval, but was overruled by a new United States Food and Drug Administration Commissioner, Dr. Arthur Hull Hays, against the advice of Food and Drug Administration scientific personnel and advisers; and
WHEREAS, the United States Food and Drug Administration approved aspartame use in sodas, despite the fact that the National Soft Drink Association argued vehemently against aspartame in these quotes from their protest:
(1) "The present record does not contain data which demonstrate that the use of APM in soft drinks will not result in the adulteration of the beverages under section 402(a)(3) of the FDC Act 21 U.S.C. 342(a)(3), which provides that a food is adulterated if it contains, in whole or in part, "a decomposed substance or if it is otherwise unfit for food”;
details can be found at the Hawaii Legislature website:
http://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/
