aspartameNM now listed with 104,013 world groups at WiserEarth.org, The Natural
Capital Institute, Paul Hawken, Lamy, NM, who spoke to 800 in Santa Fe last
night: Murray 2007.05.08
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1422

www.wiserearth.org/

WiserEarth is a community directory and networking forum
for organizations addressing the central issues of our day:
climate change, poverty, the environment, peace, water, hunger,
social justice, conservation, human rights, and more.

Content is created by people like you from around the world.

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www.naturalcapital.org/WhoWeAre.htm

Paul Hawken is the founder and executive director of Natural Capital Institute.
info@...
He is author and co-author of six books including
The Next Economy,
Growing a Business,
The Ecology of Commerce and,
Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution
with Amory Lovins.
His latest book Blessed Unrest
will be published in May 2007 by Viking.

The Natural Capital Institute serves the people
who are transforming the world.
We are a team of researchers, teachers, students, activists, scholars,
writers, social entrepreneurs, artists, and volunteers
committed to the restoration of the earth
and the healing of human culture.

We do two things:
we describe pathways of change in books and research reports,
and we create tools for connecting the individuals, information,
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To that end, NCI created the World Index for Social and Environmental
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which we call WISER.

It is a platform where people, civil society, the private sector, and government
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The more than one million organizations
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Their effectiveness to prevent harm and institute positive change is undermined
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connectivity.

We believe that we are moving from a world that is shaped by privilege
to a world created by community.

This change in the loci of power calls for a new system
of awareness, support, communication, and collaboration.

That is WISER’s purpose.

One of the best descriptions of the global zeitgeist,
the spirit that we think defines the transition the world
is undergoing was best expressed by author and scholar Richard Tarnas:

“It is perhaps not too much to say that,
in the first decade of the new millennium,
humanity has entered into a condition
that is in some sense more globally united and interconnected,
more sensitized to the experiences and suffering of others,
in certain respects more spiritually awakened,
more conscious of alternative future possibilities and ideals,
more capable of collective healing and compassion,
and, aided by technological advances in communication media,
more able to think, feel, and respond together
in a spiritually evolved manner
to the world’s swiftly changing realities
than has ever before been possible.”

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aspartameNM 74 members

Areas of Focus

| Air Quality and Pollution | Asthma | Cancer
| Cancer Chemical Pollution | Children's Health
| Endocrine Disruptors | Environmental Ethics
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| Pesticides | Precautionary Principle | Public Health
| Sustainable Urban Environmental Services
| Toxic and Hazardous Substances
| Water Pollution | Women's Health | Worker Health and Safety

About http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/

In October, 1999 I started a free Yahoo discussion group,
with a public searchable archive,
now 1,421 long posts by 2007.05.08, with 74 members.

As the moderator of all posts, I encourage all points of view,
as long as they are civil and relevant.
Most of the archive are long, conscientious reviews
of recent mainstream research by me,
including many abstracts and full texts,
and good articles from world media and the Net.

In effect, the archive is an early version of a blog,
which now is essentially a highly hyperlinked encyclodedia
of over 10,000 pages text.
Google Groups now includes 7 of these articles in the top 20 listings
for "aspartame", and similarly for "methanol" and "formaldehyde",
its products in humans.

My blog copies most posts now into the blogosphere:
http://RMForAll.blogspot.com

A number of professional scientists and global journalists belong.

I envision aspartameNM becoming a self-evolving democratic network
for instigating, funding, doing, publishing, and criticizing original research.

I will happily share some concrete, feasible research proposals with
ambitious citizens, in order to form an action network to do
the easiest and quickest first,
putting the planning, funding, execution, results, and critical feedback
on the Net in accessible detail weekly.

Every effort will be made to include cooperation with people who have
so far supported the safety of aspartame
and other substances under question,
in the spirit of true scientific inquiry and dialog, civil and evidence-based.

You are most welcome to join.


Montana novelist and river walker David James Duncan
points out that the world’s people
do not need religious or economic fundamentalists or to save them;
we need us for our salvation,
and us stands for this huge, growing crazy-quilt assemblage
of global humanity that is willing to stand up
to the raw, cancerous insults that come
from the mouths, guns, checkbooks, and policies of ideologues.

According to Duncan, there is a movement afoot in the world
that is not merely trying to prevent wrongs
but actively seeks to love this world.

Compassion and love of others are at the heart of all religions,
and at the heart of this movement.

“When small things are done with love
it’s not a flawed you or me who does them: it’s love.
I have no faith in any political party, left, right, or centrist.
I have boundless faith in love.
In keeping with this faith, the only spiritually responsible way
I know to be a citizen, artist, or activist in these strange times
is by giving little or no thought to ‘great things’
such as saving the planet, achieving world peace,
or stopping neocon greed.
Great things tend to be undoable things.
Whereas small things, lovingly done, are always within our reach.”

Some people think the movement is defined by what it is against,
but the language of the movement
is about keeping the conversation going,
because ideas that inform it never end:
growth without inequality,
wealth without plunder,
work without exploitation,
a future without fear.

– from Blessed Unrest
///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////


formaldehyde as a potent unexamined cofactor in cancer research --
sources include methanol, dark wines and liquors, aspartame, wood and
tobacco smoke: IARC Monographs on the Evaluation of Carcinogenic Risks
to Humans implicate formaldehyde in #88 and alcohol drinks in #96:
some related abstracts: Murray 2007.05.08
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1417


aspartame (methanol, formaldehyde) toxicity research summary: Rich
Murray 2007.05.08
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1404

One liter aspartame diet soda, about 3 12-oz cans,
gives 61.5 mg methanol,
so if 30% is turned into formaldehyde, the formaldehyde
dose of 18.5 mg is 37 times the recent EPA limit of
0.5 mg per liter daily drinking water for a 10-kg child:
www.epa.gov/teach/chem_summ/Formaldehyde_summary.pdf
2007.01.05 [ does not discuss formaldehyde from methanol
or aspartame ]
http://www.epa.gov/teach/teachsurvey.html comments
teach@...


"Of course, everyone chooses, as a natural priority,
to actively find, quickly share, and positively act upon
the facts about healthy and safe food, drink, and
environment."

Rich Murray, MA Room For All rmforall@...
505-501-2298 1943 Otowi Road, Santa Fe, New Mexico 87505

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/messages
group with 74 members, 1,422 posts in a public, searchable archive
http://RMForAll.blogspot.com

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1340
aspartame groups and books: updated research review of
2004.07.16: Murray 2006.05.11


http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1395
Aspartame Controversy, in Wikipedia democratic
encyclopedia, 72 references (including AspartameNM # 864
and 1173 by Murray), brief fair summary of much more
research: Murray 2007.01.01


Dark wines and liquors, as well as aspartame, provide
similar levels of methanol, above 120 mg daily, for
long-term heavy users, 2 L daily, about 6 cans.

Within hours, methanol is inevitably largely turned into
formaldehyde, and thence largely into formic acid -- the
major causes of the dreaded symptoms of "next morning"
hangover.

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, 37 mg,
is 18.5 times the USA EPA limit for daily formaldehyde in
drinking water, 2.0 mg in 2 L average daily drinking water.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1286
methanol products (formaldehyde and formic acid) are main
cause of alcohol hangover symptoms [same as from similar
amounts of methanol, the 11% part of aspartame]:
YS Woo et al, 2005 Dec: Murray 2006.01.20


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 2005.04.02

"According to model predictions, congruent with the data in the
literature [Dorman et al., 1994; Horton et al., 1992], a certain
fraction of formaldehyde is readily oxidized to formate,
a major fraction of which is rapidly converted to CO2 and exhaled,
whereas a small fraction is excreted as formic acid in urine.

However, fits to the available data in rats and monkeys of Horton et
al. [1992] and Dorman et al. [1994] show that, once formed, a
substantial fraction of formaldehyde is converted to unobserved forms.

This pathway contributes to a long-term unobserved compartment.

The latter, most plausibly, represents either the formaldehyde that
[directly or after oxidation to formate] binds to various endogenous
molecules [Heck et al., 1983; Røe, 1982] or is incorporated in the
tetrahydrofolic-acid-dependent one-carbon pathway to become the
building block of a number of synthetic pathways
[Røe, 1982; Tephly and McMartin, 1984].

That substantial amounts of methanol metabolites or by-products are
retained for a long time is verified by Horton et al. [1992] who
estimated that 18 h following an iv injection of 100 mg/kg of
14C-methanol in male Fischer-344 rats,
only 57% of the dose was eliminated from the body.

>From the data of Dorman et al. [1994] and Medinsky et al. [1997],
it can further be calculated that 48 h following the start
of a 2-h inhalation exposure to 900 ppm of 14C-methanol vapors
in female cynomolgus monkeys,
only 23% of the absorbed 14C-methanol was eliminated from the body.

These findings are corroborated by the data of Heck et al. [1983]
showing that 40% of a 14C-formaldehyde inhalation dose remained
in the body 70 h postexposure.

In the present study, the model proposed rests on acute exposure
data, where the time profiles of methanol and its metabolites were
determined only over short time periods
[a maximum of 6 h of exposure and a maximum of 48 h postexposure].

This does not allow observation of the slow release from the long-term
components.

It is to be noted that most of the published studies on the detailed
disposition kinetics of methanol regard controlled short-term
[iv injection or continuous inhalation exposure over a few hours]
methanol exposures in rats, primates, and humans
[Batterman et al., 1998; Damian and Raabe, 1996;
Dorman et al., 1994; Ferry et al., 1980; Fisher et al., 2000;
Franzblau et al., 1995; Horton et al., 1992; Jacobsen et al., 1988;
Osterloh et al., 1996; Pollack et al., 1993; Sedivec et al., 1981;
Ward et al., 1995; Ward and Pollack, 1996].

Experimental studies on the detailed time profiles following
controlled repeated exposures to methanol are lacking."

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1406
brain cell tangles and neuron death similar to Alzheimers
via low dose formaldehyde from methanol,
Chunlai Nie, Rongqiao He et al, China, 2007.01.23 BMC
Neuroscience 28 pages, 63 references: Murray 2007.01.24


http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1385
Coca-Cola carcinogenicity in rats, Ramazzini Foundation,
F Belpoggi, M Soffritti, Annals NY Academy Sciences
2006 Sept, parts of 17 pages: Murray 2006.12.02

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1382
Fiorella Belpoggi & Morando Soffritti of Ramazzini
Foundation prove lifetime carcinogenicity of Coca-Cola,
aspartame, and arsenic, Annals of the NY Academy of
Sciences: Murray 2006.11.28


http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1369
Bristol, Connecticut, schools join state program to limit
artificial sweeteners, sugar, fats for 8800 students,
Johnny J Burnham, The Bristol Press: Murray 2006.09.22

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1341
Connecticut bans artificial sweeteners in schools,
Nancy Barnes, New Milford Times: Murray 2006.05.25


http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1376
soft drinks and adolescent hyperactivity, mental distress,
conduct problems, Lars Lien, Nanna Lien, Sonja Heyerdahl,
Mayne Thoresen, Espen Bjertness 2006 Oct., A J Pub Health:
Murray 2006.10.21

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1375
healthy diet, vitamins, and fish oil help reduce
depression and violence, studies by Joseph Hibbeln,
Bernard Gesch, and Stephen Schoenthaler, articles by
Felicity Lawrence in UK Guardian Unlimited and Pat
Thomas in The Ecologist: Murray 2006.10.21

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1353
carcinogenic effect of inhaled formaldehyde, Federal
Institute of Risk Assessment, Germany -- same safe level
as for Canada: Murray 2006.06.02

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1352
Home sickness -- indoor air often worse, as our homes
seal in pollutants [one is formaldehyde, also from the 11%
methanol part of aspartame],
Megan Gillis, WinnipegSun.com: Murray 2006.06.01


http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1414
effect of aspartame on oncogene and suppressor gene expressions in
mice, Katalin Gambos, Istvan Ember, et al, University of Pecs,
Hungary, In Vivo 2007 Jan; scores of their relevant past studies since
1977: Murray 2007.04.14

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1366
toxicity in rat brains from aspartame, Vences-Mejia A,
Espinosa-Aguirre JJ et al 2006 Aug: Murray 2006.09.06

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1373
aspartame rat brain toxicity re cytochrome P450 enzymes,
especially CYP2E1, Vences-Mejia A, Espinosa-Aguirre JJ
et al, 2006 Aug, Hum Exp Toxicol: relevant abstracts re
formaldehyde from methanol in alcohol drinks:
Murray 2006.09.29

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1271
combining aspartame and quinoline yellow, or MSG and
brilliant blue, harms nerve cells, eminent C. Vyvyan
Howard et al, 2005 education.guardian.co.uk,
Felicity Lawrence: Murray 2005.12.21

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1277
50% UK baby food is now organic -- aspartame or MSG
with food dyes harm nerve cells, CV Howard 3 year study
funded by Lizzy Vann, CEO, Organix Brands,
Children's Food Advisory Service: Murray 2006.01.13

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1279
all three aspartame metabolites harm human erythrocyte
[red blood cell] membrane enzyme activity, KH Schulpis
et al, two studies in 2005, Athens, Greece, 2005.12.14:
2004 research review, RL Blaylock: Murray 2006.01.14


http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1349
NIH NLM ToxNet HSDB Hazardous Substances Data Bank
inadequate re aspartame (methanol, formaldehyde,
formic acid): Murray 2006.08.19

http://toxnet.nlm.nih.gov/cgi-bin/sis/search/f?./temp/~HwoSfJ:1
HSDB Hazardous Substances Data Bank: Aspartame

ASPARTAME CASRN: 22839-47-0
METHANOL CASRN: 67-56-1
FORMALDEHYDE CASRN: 50-00-0
FORMIC ACID CASRN: 64-18-6


http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1052
DMDC: Dimethyl dicarbonate 200mg/L in drinks adds methanol
98 mg/L ( becomes formaldehyde in body ): EU Scientific
Committee on Foods 2001.07.12: Murray 2004.01.22


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"

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/957
safety of aspartame Part 1/2 12.4.2: EC HCPD-G SCF:
Murray 2003.01.12 EU Scientific Committee on Food,
a whitewash

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://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/782
RTM: Smith, Terpening, Schmidt, Gums:
full text: aspartame, MSG, fibromyalgia 2002.01.17
Jerry D Smith, Chris M Terpening,
Siegfried OF Schmidt, and John G Gums
Relief of Fibromyalgia Symptoms Following
Discontinuation of Dietary Excitotoxins.
The Annals of Pharmacotherapy 2001; 35(6): 702-706.
Malcolm Randall Veterans Affairs Medical Center,
Gainesville, FL, USA.
BACKGROUND: Fibromyalgia is a common rheumatologic
disorder that is often difficult to treat effectively.
CASE SUMMARY: Four patients diagnosed with fibromyalgia
syndrome for two to 17 years are described.
All had undergone multiple treatment modalities with
limited success.
All had complete, or nearly complete,
resolution of their symptoms within months after
eliminating monosodium glutamate (MSG)
or MSG plus aspartame from their diet.
All patients were women with multiple comorbidities
prior to elimination of MSG.
All have had recurrence of symptoms whenever MSG
is ingested.

Siegfried O. Schmidt, MD Asst. Clinical Prof.
siggy@...
Community Health and Family Medicine, U. Florida,
Gainesville, FL Shands Hospital West Oak Clinic
Gainesville, FL 32608-3629 352-376-5071
///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/915
formaldehyde toxicity: Thrasher & Kilburn: Shaham: EPA:
Gold: Wilson: CIIN: Murray 2002.12.12

Thrasher (2001): "The major difference is that the
Japanese demonstrated the incorporation of FA and its
metabolites into the placenta and fetus.
The quantity of radioactivity remaining in maternal and
fetal tissues at 48 hours was 26.9% of the administered
dose." [ Ref. 14-16 ]

Arch Environ Health 2001 Jul-Aug; 56(4): 300-11.
Embryo toxicity and teratogenicity of formaldehyde.
[100 references]
Thrasher JD, Kilburn KH. toxicology@...
Sam-1 Trust, Alto, New Mexico, USA. full text
http://www.drthrasher.org/formaldehyde_embryo_toxicity.html

http://www.drthrasher.org/formaldehyde_1990.html full text
Jack Dwayne Thrasher, Alan Broughton, Roberta Madison.
Immune activation and autoantibodies in humans with
long-term inhalation exposure to formaldehyde.
Archives of Environmental Health. 1990; 45: 217-223.
PMID: 2400243
///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////