"Neither congressional hearings or repeated petitions calling for a ban have stopped aspartame manufacturers from exposing the public to this sweet poison. In fact, aspartame producers are reporting increased sales and boasting the marketplace addition of 'neotame,' a new aspartame product," explained Mission Possible International Founder Betty Martini.

For 16 years, the FDA resisted pressure to approve aspartame due to safety studies linking the artificial sweetener to numerous adverse reactions, including the development of brain tumors in animal studies. In 1977, FDA investigator Jerome Bressler released a report describing how, in clinical studies submitted to the FDA, Searle removed aspartame-induced brain tumors that developed in lab rats and placed them back into the study. If the rats died, Bressler reported, Searle would resurrect them on paper.

In a personal conversation with Martini and prominent aspartame experts, Doctors H. J. Roberts and Russell Blaylock he admitted the studies were so bad FDA removed 20% of the most damaging data of his report.

Three years after Donald Rumsfeld became CEO of Searle, aspartame was approved for use in dry goods. To find out how he accomplished this feat, click into the new movie, “Sweet Misery: A Poisoned World” and hear the words of renowned Washington Consumer Attorney James Turner as he speaks about President Reagan's Executive Order: http://www.soundandfury.tv/pages/Rumsfeld2.html

Since its 1981 approval, the FDA has published a list of 92 symptoms of aspartame poisoning, which includes headaches, vision loss including blindness, seizures, neurological problems, cardiovascular problems and death. The FDA admits adverse reactions to aspartame comprise about 80 percent of consumer complaints it receives each year. Martini has been networking victims, scientists, and physicians under an umbrella of scientific data and published medical literature that has been growing since Mission Possible formed in 1992.

Having exhausted her executive and administrative remedies regarding the removal of aspartame from the marketplace, Martini is convinced that, "Litigation is the only way to spare consumers the misery of aspartame poisoning." Martini's reasoning is supported in the outcomes of recent product liability controversies. It was class action lawsuits -- not government agency intervention -- that forced the epidemic of Vioxx-induced heart attacks out into the open where the FDA had to take administrative action, banning sales of the dangerous pain relief drug. Information from the experts and in medical texts show aspartame is actually a neurotoxic drug that interacts with other drugs and vaccinations.

The story of how aspartame was discovered and approved by the FDA has been pieced together over the years through documents obtained by Mission Possible. That aspartame overcame FDA neurotoxicity concerns and is now found in over 7,000 commonly consumed foods, beverages and medical preparations is a case study of how power politics trumps science and public safety in the product approval process.

In one set of documents, aspartame producer G.D. Searle used poor people from six third-world countries as test subjects for a study conducted in 1983/84. The data shows that, over the 18-month duration of the study, some of the subjects developed brain tumors; others began to experience seizures. In one case, a pregnant woman spontaneously aborted, began hemorrhaging and then disappeared from the study.

The study showed that the numbers of people whose brains and central nervous systems are adversely affected by aspartame are statistically significant enough to warrant a review of its status as an FDA-approved artificial sweetener. But the FDA was not provided with the results of the Searle study nor was it allowed to review the clinical data.

A study was done at Kings College in England by Dr. Peter Nunn in 1999 on aspartame and brain tumors. Monsanto insisted that aspartame could not cause brain tumors because it doesn't get in the blood stream even though Martini says industry's own studies shows it does and released this information in a report, which can be read at http://www.rense.com/health3/asptumor.htm.

In the result of this study it said: "Interestingly, when we exposed human brain tumour cells to nitrosated DKP the cells became more motile and their rate of proliferation was significantly elevated. While it is somewhat early to speculate, it is possible that the aspartame breakdown product may be capable of enhancing the rate of malignant progression of pre-existing (and possibly clinically silent, undiagnosed) tumours in the brain." This was exactly what the famed neuroscientist Dr. John Olney said when he made world news in l996 over the aspartame/brain tumor association.

Monsanto, the maker of the controversial bovine growth hormone that has been linked to the development of cancer in humans and cattle, bought Searle (and the rights to produce aspartame) in 1985. They sold in l999 to other companies.

The prevalence of brain tumors in the U.S. has been increasing steadily since the early 1980s. Today, about 70 percent of adults and 40 percent of children are regular consumers of products that contain aspartame.

"There is not one shred of evidence to suggest that aspartame is safe. Yet, our files are overflowing with studies and reports proving that aspartame is a not a food additive but a neurotoxic drug that breaks down to a brain tumor agent, DKP. And now, 25 years later, we have epidemic proportions of people developing brain tumors and a full spectrum of other neurological disorders," Martini said.

Aspartame's road to marketplace approval and its effect on public health is extremely well documented. The aspartame story has been described in the 1,038-page medical text "Aspartame Disease: An Ignored Epidemic" by H.J. Roberts, MD. (http://www.sunsentpress.com). Excitotoxins: The Taste That Kills by neurosurgeon Russell Blaylock, M.D., also describes these problems. http://www.russellblaylockmd.com

Former aspartame-induced multiple-sclerosis sufferer Cori Brackett traveled over 7,000 miles to interview physicians, scientists, attorneys and FDA investigators about aspartame neurotoxicity and how then former (and now current) Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld used his political muscle to achieve aspartame's FDA approval. The result is the powerful video documentary "Sweet Misery: A Poisoned World" (www.soundandfuryproductions.com).

The largest collection of aspartame-related studies, reports and case histories available anywhere in the world can be found online at http://www.dorway.com, the Mission Possible website. Aspartame Toxicity Center is http://www.holisticmed.com/aspartame

New York and New Jersey residents who believe they may qualify as a plaintiff in a product liability lawsuit against aspartame producers are encouraged to contact Mission Possible at (770) 242-2599. To qualify, one must be able to establish themselves as an aspartame consumer prior to developing a brain tumor and fall within the three-year statute of limitations.

Contact:

Dr. Betty Martini
770 242-2599
Mission Possible International
9270 River Club Parkway
Duluth, Georgia 30097