http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1212
Group seeks to ban aspartame from New Mexico: Diana Heil, The New Mexican,
Santa Fe, page C-6 top: Holman: Fox: Murray 2005.09.08

[ Comments by Rich Murray are in square bracketts. Although common in the
United Kingdom, newspaper articles in the USA are rare about the much
maligned issue of aspartame toxicity. Adroit industry PR disinformation for
decades has been remarkably successful in muddying the debate and obscuring
central facts, especially the reality that the 11% methanol (wood alcohol)
component of aspartame is always, inevitably largely turned in the human
body into formaldehyde and then formic acid, both potent, cumulative toxins
that harm all cell types and organs. Indubitably, formaldehyde is toxic,
neurotoxic, carcinogenic, and allergenic.

The same process occurs for users who get hangovers and progressive
deterioration from dark wines and liquors, which have about one part in ten
thousand methanol impurity, just twice as much as in diet soda. Who would
have an child or teenager, pregnant woman, breast-feeding mother, mental
patient, diabetic, obese, or elderly person daily drink a quart of red wine
or fruit brandy, getting the same dose of formaldehyde as from 2 quarts (6
cans) of diet soda?

It is an open, unexplored scientific question as to why the even greater
amounts of methanol released by degradation of pectins from fruits and
vegetables by bacteria in the human colon aren't known to produce widespread
symptoms.
However, folic acid specifically protects against formaldehyde toxicity by
expediting the excretion of it from the body-- the major food sources for
folic acid, one of the cheapest and safest of vitamins, include fruits and
vegetables:

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/002408.htm

Beans and legumes
Citrus fruits and juices
Wheat bran and other whole grains
Dark green leafy vegetables
Poultry, pork, shellfish
Liver

People with poor diets, and those who have possible genetic flaws that
interfere with folic acid will very probably be far more vulnerable to
formaldehyde toxicity from any source.

The New Mexican has rendered outstanding service to the world public this
year by publishing lengthly letters on this issue by fully informed, fully
qualified Santa Fe physicians, as well as this fairly balanced article,
which also gives two opposed websites that enable any open-minded reader to
quickly discover the actual facts fully available within the smoke clouds of
over-stated claims by both sides in this heated controversy, fueled by
callous, yet pious, corporate greed as well as citizen outrage. ]


From: "E Bryant Holman" <bryanth@...>
To: "1zapatista" <1zapatista@yahoogroups.com>;
<Educate-Yourself_Forum@yahoogroups.com>
Cc: "Stephen Fox" <stephen@...>; "Aspartame Support Group"
<aspartame@yahoogroups.com>
Subject: [Aspartame Support] Group seeks to ban sugar substitute from state
Date: Wednesday, September 07, 2005 9:54 PM

http://www.freenewmexican.com/news/32189.html

(40 comments; last comment posted Wednesday 07:50 pm)

Group seeks to ban sugar substitute from state

By Diana Heil
The New Mexican, Santa Fe, page C-6 top
Contact Diana Heil at 505-986-3066 or dheil@...

On the Web:
David O. Rietz's DORway to Discovery: www.dorway.com
[ The classic website for detailed aspartame toxicity information and
history, with over 800 printed pages by David O. Rietz (1937-2003), very
well updated by Tanya Anne Crosby (Dave's eldest daughter). ]

FDA rebuttal: www.caloriecontrol.org/response.html
[ Provided by the Food and Drug Administration Via E-Mail January 27,
1999 -- as usual, industry PR disinformation ignors the accumulation of very
damaging mainstream research since June, 1998 by independent, conscientious,
fully qualified scientists. ]


September 7, 2005 Wednesday

Santa Fe gallery owner Stephen Fox is pushing for New Mexico to close its
borders to aspartame, a sugar substitute sold under the brand names
NutraSweet and Equal. He's not a doctor or a lawyer ­ and he's not sick.
But in the fight against what he believes is a poison, he has pulled
together people who are.

Aspartame is approved for use in all foods and beverages in the United
States and the European Union. But a host of doctors, state legislators,
activists and patients who say their health was damaged by the sweetener
are siding with Fox. They have petitioned New Mexico leaders to outlaw this
so-called neurotoxic substance. Citing case studies in the United States
and recent research in Italy, they say aspartame is linked to brain tumors,
lymphoma, leukemia, seizures, allergic reactions, headaches and dizziness.

As a result, the state's Environmental Improvement Board faces tough
questions about this popular, though controversial, ingredient, which
Americans have consumed since 1981. Does the state have the legal power to
dictate a ban on products that have federal approval? Does the evidence
against aspartame hold up under scientific scrutiny?

The EIB has the authority to adopt rules that govern food protection. But
at a meeting Tuesday, board members spent more than an hour debating
whether they have the power to challenge NutraSweet. They scheduled a
public hearing in October to sort out the legal issues.

Realizing a statewide ban might take a long time, Dr. Grant La Farge, a
Santa Fe cardiologist, said in an interview after the meeting, "I'd like to
see it removed from schools."

Meanwhile, overwhelmed by the campaign against NutraSweet, state assistant
Attorney General Mary H. Smith set her computer to automatically delete any
e-mails containing the word "aspartame," according to a memo she sent
Friday to the EIB. Smith said she worried viruses might accompany the
"flood" of unsolicited e-mails .

Smith, in her memo, also gave a narrow reading on the power of the EIB to
ban aspartame. She would not provide legal advice on whether the board
should adopt Fox's proposed rules, nor did she research federal
interstate-commerce laws.

New Mexico law, however, does grant the board the authority to limit unsafe
foods in which poisonous substances are added.

According to nutritionist Janis Roszler's column in Diabetes Health
magazine: "Aspartame has been the target of many Internet rumors and urban
legends linking it to such diseases as multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's ,
Alzheimer's and lupus. These allegations have been examined and are
absolutely false. Over 200 scientific studies have confirmed its safety,
and regulatory agencies in more than 100 countries have endorsed its use."

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration says most people can ingest aspartame
safely, except for those who experience allergic reactions and people who
have the rare disease phenylketonuria . The FDA admits NutraSweet and Equal
turn into formaldehyde and methanol in your stomach, but the agency
emphasizes that other foods, such as citrus fruits and tomatoes, produce as
much or more methanol as these sweeteners do.

Various health groups also have stuck up for these sugar substitutes: the
Multiple Sclerosis Foundation, the American Diabetes Association, the Mayo
Clinic, the Calorie Control Council.

Aspartame is found in about 6,000 products, including Diet Coke and Pepsi,
chewing gum, desserts, jellies, yogurt, vitamins, cough drops and coffee
sweeteners. Marsha Gilford, a spokeswoman for Smith's grocery stores in the
Utah office, said the company will keep tabs on Fox's proposal.

"It would be a significant reduction of products in our stores," she said
of the proposed ban. "Like many other sugar replacements, it's popular."
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217 W. Water St. Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501 505 983-2002
***********************************************************

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1211
Stephen Fox reports progress re aspartame ban with New Mexico Environmental
Improvement Board: Fox: Murray (also letter to David L Katz, MD): 2005.09.06

Rich Murray, MA Room For All rmforall@... 505-501-2298
1943 Otowi Road Santa Fe, New Mexico 87505 USA
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/messages
group with 148 members, 1,212 posts in a public, searchable archive


http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1143
methanol [formaldehyde, formic acid] disposition: Bouchard M et al,
full plain text, 2001: substantial sources are degradation of fruit pectins,
liquors, aspartame, smoke: Murray 2005.05.30 2005.07.24 rmforall



http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1141
Nurses Health Study can quickly reveal the extent of aspartame (methanol,
formaldehyde, formic acid) toxicity: Murray 2004.11.21 rmforall

The Nurses Health Study is a bonanza of information about the health of
probably hundreds of nurses who use 6 or more cans daily of diet soft
drinks -- they have also stored blood and tissue samples from their immense
pool of subjects.

Dark wines and liquors, as well as aspartame, provide similar levels of
methanol, above 100 mg daily, for long-term heavy users. Methanol is
inevitably largely turned into formaldehyde, and thence largely into formic
acid.

Both products are toxic, and at this level of use, about 2 L daily,
almost six 12-oz cans of diet drink, are above recent lifetime EPA
safety limits in tap water for methanol and formaldehyde of respectively,
for a 60 kg person, 30 mg and 9 mg daily. The 1999 EPA level for
formaldehyde in drinking water was 1 ppm, while recent WHO levels are 2.6
ppm.

The immediate health effects for dark wines and liquors are the infamous
"morning after" hangover, for which many informed experts cite as the major
cause the conversion of the methanol impurity, over one part in ten thousand
(red wine has 128 mg/L methanol), into formaldehyde and formic acid.
Everyone knows the complex progression of symptoms at this level of
long-term, chronic toxicity.

Aspartame reactors have a very similar progression.

If 1% of all people exposed to aspartame are heavy users with symptoms, then
there would easily be about 2 million cases in the USA alone.

This is a public health emergency.

At the very least, professionals and the public should be alerted to
investigate their own exposure, and be given a chance to try a very safe,
simple, inexpensive treatment for complex, intractable, progressive
symptoms -- reducing or eliminating their intake.

There are as well, many safe substances that prevent or treat the
toxicities -- for example, high folic acid levels expedite the elimination
of formaldehyde.

These toxicities are largely uncontrolled co-factors that affect every
disease and must confuse and impede many health research programs on all
levels.

People in high-pressure, critical occupations, such as pilots, nuclear plant
operators, and national leaders, should certainly be alerted.

Also, two careful studies show substantial methanol release from degradation
of pectins by bacteria in the colon from fruits and vegetables -- a topic
that deserves careful, thorough research.

Due to my bias, based on detailed reviews by Monte WC (1984)
and by Mark D Gold (2003), for months I have been discounting the
startlingly high methanol levels reported in the abstract for Lindinger W
(1997). I had been reducing the values in their abstract from g to mg, an
unwarrented "correction" by a factor of a thousand, only to find that
thefull text study and their many related studies supply expert, robust
results:

Alcohol Clin Exp Res. 1997 Aug; 21(5): 939-43.
Endogenous production of methanol after the consumption of fruit.
Lindinger W, Taucher J, Jordan A, Hansel A, Vogel W.
Institut fur Ionenphysik, Leopold Franzens Universitat Innsbruck, Austria.

After the consumption of fruit, the concentration of methanol in the human
body increases by as much as an order of magnitude.
This is due to the degradation of natural pectin (which is esterified with
methyl alcohol) in the human colon.
In vivo tests performed by means of proton-transfer-reaction mass
spectrometry show that consumed pectin in either a pure form (10 to 15 g)
or a natural form (in 1 kg of apples) induces a significant increase of
methanol in the breath (and by inference in the blood) of humans.
The amount generated from pectin (0.4 to 1.4 g) [ 400 to 1400 mg ]
is approximately equivalent to the total daily endogenous production
(measured to be 0.3 to 0.6 g/day) [ 300 to 600 mg ]
or that obtained from 0.3 liters of 80-proof brandy
(calculated to be 0.5 g). [ 500 mg ]
This dietary pectin may contribute to the development
of nonalcoholic cirrhosis of the liver. PMID: 9267548

Alcohol Clin Exp Res. 1995 Oct; 19(5): 1147-50.
Methanol in human breath.
Taucher J, Lagg A, Hansel A, Vogel W, Lindinger W.
Institut fur Ionenphysik, Universitat Innsbruck, Austria.

Using proton transfer reaction-mass spectrometry for trace gas analysis of
the human breath, the concentrations of methanol and ethanol have been
measured for various test persons consuming alcoholic beverages and various
amounts of fruits, respectively.
The methanol concentrations increased from a natural (physiological) level
of approximately 0.4 ppm up to approximately 2 ppm a few hours after eating
about 1/2 kg of fruits,
and about the same concentration was reached after drinking of 100 ml brandy
containing 24% volume of ethanol and 0.19% volume of methanol.
PMID: 8561283 [ Corrected 2005.07.11:
24 ml means 19 g ethanol, and 0.19 ml means 0.15 g = 150 mg methanol.
One L diet soda has 61.5 mg methanol in the aspartame molecule, so 100 ml
diet soda has 6.15 mg methanol, so the brandy has 24.4 times more methanol
than diet soda. A pound of fruit gives about as much methanol as 2 L
(nearly 6 cans) diet soda. ]

I urge Channing Laboratory and its participating universities to rapidly
mount an in-house study to study the Nurses Health Study database for the
hundreds of nurses who are long-term users, above 6 cans diet drinks daily,
for correlations with every disease, as well as ubiquitous co-factors like
wine and liquor, cigarette smoke, and fruits and vegetables. It could
vastly serve the world public health to make the initial findings widely
available immediately. The disparaged issue of aspartame toxicity could be
swiftly made legitimate, and the resulting progress on all levels remarkably
accelerated.

A single scientist could do this.

Comments pro and con are welcome. A convenient venue would be
the moderated Usenet group: bionet.toxicology.
***********************************************************


http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1186
aspartame induces lymphomas and leukaemias in rats, free full plain text, M
Soffritti, F Belpoggi, DD Esposti, L Lambertini, 2005 April, 2005.07.14:
main results agree with their previous methanol and formaldehyde studies,
Murray 2005.07.19

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1185
Ramazzini Institute (Italy) lifetime study with 1800 rats shows aspartame at
human use levels causes cancer (methanol, formaldehyde, formic acid), M
Soffritti and F Belpoggi: Felicity Lawrence, The Guardian (UK): Murray
2005.07.15

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1189
Michael F Jacobson of CSPI now and in 1985 re aspartame toxicity, letter to
FDA Commissioner Lester Crawford; California OEHHA aspartame critique
2004.03.12; Center for Consumer Freedom denounces CSPI: Murray 2004.07.27

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1045
http://www.holisticmed.com/aspartame/scf2002-response.htm
Mark Gold exhaustively critiques European Commission Scientific
Committee on Food re aspartame ( 2002.12.04 ): 59 pages, 230 references

http://www.HolisticMed.com/aspartame mgold@...
Aspartame Toxicity Information Center Mark D. Gold
12 East Side Drive #2-18 Concord, NH 03301 603-225-2100
http://www.holisticmed.com/aspartame/abuse/methanol.html
"Scientific Abuse in Aspartame Research"

Gold points out that industry methanol assays were too insensitive to
properly measure blood methanol levels.

Fully 11% of aspartame is methanol-- 1,120 mg aspartame in 2 L diet soda,
almost six 12-oz cans, gives 123 mg methanol (wood alcohol). If 30% of
the methanol is turned into formaldehyde, the amount of formaldehyde is 18
times the USA EPA limit for daily formaldehyde in drinking water, 2 mg in 2
L water.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/835
ATSDR: EPA limit 1 ppm formaldehyde in drinking water July 1999:
Murray 2002.05.30 rmforall

Aspartame is made of phenylalanine (50% by weight) and aspartic acid (39%),
both ordinary amino acids, bound loosely together by methanol (wood alcohol,
11%). The readily released methanol from aspartame is within hours turned
by the liver into formaldehyde and then formic acid, both potent, cumulative
toxins.


http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1182
Joining together: short review: research on aspartame (methanol,
formaldehyde, formic acid) toxicity: Murray 2005.07.08 rmforall

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1071
research on aspartame (methanol, formaldehyde, formic acid) toxicity: Murray
2004.04.29 rmforall
************************************************************