this first page of a long review appreciates details in Unhee Lim study:
bias, omissions, incuriosity = opportunity, aspartame safety evaluation,
Magnuson BA, Burdock GA, Williams GM, 7 more, 2007 Sept, Ajinomoto
funded 98 pages html [$ 32 781888262_content.pdf]: Murray 2007.09.17
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1473

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1472

bmagnuso@...,info@...,gburdock@...,jdoull@...\
,gmarsh@...,mwpariza@...,spencer@...,
bwaddell@...,R.Walker@...,preston.julian@...,David.Kirkl\
and@...,gary_williams@...,


Herein I give selections from ASE, along with critical comments and
notes in square brackets, along with their 415 references.

Highlighted are the valuable results by Unhee Lim et al, 2007 Sept.


"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 82 members, 1,473 posts in a public,
searchable archive http://RMForAll.blogspot.com
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Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 2006 Sep; 15(9): 1654-9.
Comment in:
Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 2007 Jul; 16(7): 1527-8;
author reply 1528-9.
Consumption of aspartame-containing beverages and incidence of
hematopoietic and brain malignancies.
Lim U, Subar AF, Mouw T, Hartge P, Morton LM, Stolzenberg-Solomon R,
Campbell D, Hollenbeck AR, Schatzkin A.
Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences,
National Cancer Institute, 6130 Executive Boulevard, EPN 4005,
Rockville, MD 20852-7344, USA. PMID: 16985027

Unhee Lim 1,
Amy F. Subar 2, subara@...,
Traci Mouw 1,
Patricia Hartge 1,
Lindsay M. Morton 1,
Rachael Stolzenberg-Solomon 1,
David Campbell 3,
Albert R. Hollenbeck 4
and Arthur Schatzkin 1

1 Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics,

2 Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences, National Cancer
Institute, NIH, Department of Health and Human Services;

3 Information Management Services, Inc., Rockville, Maryland; and

4 AARP, Washington, District of Columbia

Requests for reprints: Amy Subar,
Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences,
National Cancer Institute,
6130 Executive Boulevard, EPN 4005, Rockville, MD 20852-7344.
Phone: 301-594-0831; Fax: 301-435-3710. E-mail: subara@...

http://cebp.aacrjournals.org/cgi/content/full/15/9/1654 free full text

BACKGROUND:
In a few animal experiments, aspartame has been linked to hematopoietic
and brain cancers.

Most animal studies have found no increase in the risk of these or other
cancers.

Data on humans are sparse for either cancer.

Concern lingers regarding this widely used artificial sweetener.

OBJECTIVE:
We investigated prospectively whether aspartame consumption is
associated with the risk of hematopoietic cancers or gliomas (malignant
brain cancer).

METHODS:
We examined 285,079 men and 188,905 women ages 50 to 71 years in the
NIH-AARP Diet and Health Study cohort

Daily aspartame intake was derived from responses to a baseline
self-administered food frequency questionnaire that queried consumption
of four aspartame-containing beverages (soda, fruit drinks, sweetened
iced tea, and aspartame added to hot coffee and tea) during the past year.

Histologically confirmed incident cancers were identified from eight
state cancer registries.

Multivariable-adjusted relative risks (RR) and 95% confidence intervals
(CI) were estimated using Cox proportional hazards regression that
adjusted for age, sex, ethnicity, body mass index, and history of diabetes.

RESULTS:
During over 5 years of follow-up (1995-2000), 1,888 hematopoietic
cancers and 315 malignant gliomas were ascertained.

Higher levels of aspartame intake were not associated with the risk of
overall hematopoietic cancer
( RR for over 600 mg/d, 0.98; 95% CI, 0.76 - 1.27 ),
glioma ( RR for over 400 mg/d, 0.73; 95% CI, 0.46 - 1.15;
P for inverse linear trend = 0.05 ),
or their subtypes in men and women.

CONCLUSIONS:
Our findings do not support the hypothesis that aspartame increases
hematopoietic or brain cancer risk. PMID: 16985027

"We cannot exclude the possibility that higher aspartame consumption
than that observed in this study may be associated with an elevated risk
of hematopoietic or brain cancers.

In the laboratory study with positive findings, animals were fed doses
starting from 4 mg up to 5,000 mg per kg body weight.

Significantly elevated lymphomas and leukemias were observed in female
rats fed 20 mg of aspartame and higher ( e.g., 1,200 mg for humans
weighing 60 kg or 132 lb; refs. 13, 14 ).

The reported aspartame intake in our data ranged from 0 to 3,400 mg/d
with sparse numbers in the upper intake categories
( under 1% consuming over 1,200 mg/d ).

However, we did not detect any increase in risk estimates in the highest
categories ( over 1,200 or 2,000 mg/d, which is equivalent to ~7 to 11
cans of soft drinks daily) compared with the lowest categories,
and the associations were similarly null in both men and women."

[ This is the first good data about the percentage of aspartame users
who use over 6 cans daily, 1200 mg aspartame, which releases 132 mg
methanol, which becomes in many tissues durable cumulative toxic
products of formaldehyde and formic acid, about 30%, 40 mg daily.
Naturally this is a problematic level for obese diabetics and other
groups that are exposed to such high levels of potent toxins. ]

About 1% of 473,984 is 4,700 people, with a peak intake of 17 cans daily.

It would be worthwhile to investigate a wide variety of symptoms for the
0.1% of highest level users, about 470 people.

Table 1 reveals consistent increase in problems from

--------------------- zero to (400 - 600) to (over 600) mg/d
aspartame intake:

% of cohert ---------- 46 -------- 5 -------- 4 %

aspartame use mg/d ---- 0 -------441 ------ 986

16+ education -------- 37 ------- 40 ------- 34 %

diabetes history ------ 3 ------- 22 ------- 26 %

alcohol g/d ---------- 14 ------- 11 ------- 13

never smoke ---------- 36 ------- 31 ------- 29 %

Body Mass Index ------ 26 ------- 29 ------- 29

18.5 - 25 ------------ 42 ------- 21 ------- 19 %

30 - 35 -------------- 13 ------- 23 ------- 26 %

over 35 -------------- 4 ------- 10 ------- 13 %

Physical activity %:

under 3-4/mo --------- 32 ------- 32 ------- 37 %

under 1-2/wk --------- 22 ------- 21 ------- 19 %

over 3-4/wk ---------- 45 ------- 45 ------- 43 %

Calories kcal ----- 1,919 ---- 1,855 ---- 2,044 %

Caffeine mg/d ------ 393 ------ 364 ------ 424

There do seem to be many increases of problems
from the second to third row, as aspartame use doubles.

Granted, this is cherry picking the data, selecting interesting patterns.

Correlations alone do not prove any direction of causation.

Nevertheless, it may be of value to study the correlations for
increasing aspartame intake among the 4 % using over 600 mg, the
equivalent of 3 12-oz cans diet soda daily.

For instance, are a minority of these heavy users displaying the great
majority of the problems that are reflected in the mean for each level
of use, with most users only having little or no increase in problems?

This is a group of about 20,000 people.

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

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, over 100,000 for decades.
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Naturally, I want to cut to the chase with pertinent critical comments,
often giving quotes from the ASE text and its 415 references:

"As aspartame is completely hydrolyzed following intake, studies
employing either intraperitoneal administration or direct exposure of
cells in vitro to intact aspartame do not reflect human exposures and
therefore, must be carefully interpreted." [ Spot on! ]


3.1.1 [ 22 mg ingested aspartame releases 2.4 mg methanol, which is 11%
of the aspartame. Stegink, 1987

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 times the USA EPA limit for daily
formaldehyde in drinking water, 2 mg in 2 L water.

For instance, hangover researchers claim that it is the ~150 mg/L
methanol impurity, about one part in 10,000, twice the level from
aspartame in diet sodas, in dark wines and liquors that, turned into
formaldehyde and then formic acid, is the major cause of the dreadful
symptoms of "morning after" hangover". ]


[reference 254:
J. Nutrition 1973 Oct; 103(10): 1454-1459.
Metabolism of aspartame in monkeys.
Oppermann JA, Muldoon E, Ranney RE.
Dept. of Biochemistry, Searle Laboratories,
Division of G.D. Searle and Co. Box 5110, Chicago, IL 60680

They found that about 70% of the radioactive methanol in aspartame put
into the stomachs of 3 to 7 kg monkeys was eliminated within 8 hours,
with little additional elimination, as carbon dioxide in exhaled air and
as water in the urine.

They did not mention that this means that about 30% of the methanol
naturally is quickly made into formaldehyde and then into formic acid,
with about 30% retention as durable cumulative toxic products in many
tissues.

They did not report any studies on the distribution of radioactivity in
body tissues, except that blood plasma proteins after 4 days held 4% of
the initial methanol.

This study did not monitor long-term use of aspartame. ]
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