I'd much rather put the head honchos in a cell and force feed them heated
aspartame. And have the cameras rolling so it can be put on television. Those
greedy pigs would be begging for mercy.

Barbara Campbell <barbbelen@...> wrote: Tobacco use is legal,
albeit unacceptable politically, and many very large class actions have been
formed and successful...this can be done too!
----- Original Message -----
From: carolguilford@...
To: aspartame support
Sent: Thursday, November 30, 2006 3:20 PM
Subject: [Aspartame Support] Civil action law suits

Dear list,

I have been avoiding answering the queries from members about civil action law
suits about aspartame.

Years ago when I first started my involvement with the anti-aspartame movement,
my uncle (a lawyer in St. Louis, Mo.) said to me, "This is all very well and
good, but nothing is going to happen until the 'class action boys' get hold of
it, and they won't be doing it for altruistic purposes but for the money."
That was okay with me, but how to get 'the boys' has proved to be an
insurmountable obstacle.

There was a law suit that got very close, here in Ca., down to the wire with a
very prestigious law firm involved; (although they wouldn't put in any money).
One of the major problems is, of course, that aspartame is approved by the FDA,
and a state judge can just decide not to let the law suit go forward because of
this. In other words, the State does not take precedence over the Federal.

A lawyer in New York was looking for 'brain tumor' cases but it certainly hasn't
panned out. I suspect the brain tumor victims die, is one reason and the other
is the money. The law firm or firms must foot the bill.

Someone suggested suing the FDA and this is an interesting notion, because only
the US Congress has power over the FDA

One idea I had some time ago was that each victim hire a lawyer personally and
then someone could get them all together. Now that I write this again, it seems
a 'pipe dream', since it is even hard to get members on this list to write a
letter, much less, find a lawyer.

Now, If anyone wants to take charge of inquiring of class action lawyers... of
course, it would be fabulous.

You don't need a lot of people to file a class action, but...

The lawyers contacted some years ago would not take up the cudgel as they so
readily did with Vioxx, the arthritis drug. What may be different now is that
more people know the dangers of aspartame, but as an example of how powerful the
industry is... think about this:

Dr. Morando Soffritti conclusively proved the methanol in aspartame caused
cancer, particularly leukemia (s) and lymphoma. And what happened? The European
Union, loaded with members paid-off by industry issued its edict that aspartame
is safe. I think even Dr. Soffritti did not realize the power of the industry
until this happened. He truly believed the European Union would support his
findings.

The NIH and NCI, to combat Soffritti's 8-year study, actually held a press
conference and put out press releases that a bogus AARP study proved long-term
aspartame use was safe. In fact, the study had no questions about aspartame, at
all.

The PR firm employed by the aspartame industry is awesome. It used to be Burson
Marsteller, but I have not kept up to see if they are still in charge of making
sure the media tells its readers aspartame is safe.

With a flick of a fax, the aspartame industry can put notices in all major
magazines and newspapers that aspartame is safe. The most repulsive, some years
ago, was first published in Time magazine by health writer, lackey, Christine
Gorman, titled "Web of Deceit". The article imagined that the people in the
anti-aspartame movement were "Internet terrorists"-- the whole deal was an
"internet hoax". My dark joke, at the time was, "Yeah, that's what I always
wanted to do when I grew up: start an Internet hoax."

In the Diane Fleming case, her lawyer told me personally that it would be hard
to bring in the information that Diane's husband died from the methanol in
aspartame and not windshield washer fluid (even in Federal Court) because the
FDA approves it.

The discussion is open.

Carolg

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