aspartame ban bill, with 22 supporting Representatives, approved by Hawaii House
Health Committee -- next is House Finance Committee: Stephen Fox: Rich Murray
2009.03.20
http://rmforall.blogspot.com/2009_03_01_archive.htm
Friday, March 20, 2009
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1570

http://theblackship.com/news/categories/world/3320-Hawaii-House-Concurrent-Resol\
ution-128.html
http://tinyurl.com/cnnhtz

Hawaii House Concurrent Resolution 128
World › 20 March, 2009 22:11

HONOLULU - For those of your readers who might sometimes be concerned about
their own health and about Consumer Protection in general, the Hawaii House of
Representatives has moved forward an extraordinary Resolution asking the FDA to
rescind the approval for Aspartame.

It is particularly auspicious and significant because both the Chair and the
Vice Chair of the House Health Committee, as well as the Vice Chair of the
Consumer Protection and Commerce Committee, have signed on as cosponsors. This
means the measure will receive a scheduled hearing in the House Health
Committee, something that was denied last year by Senate Health Chairman David
Ige for the Senate Resolution, as well as the Senate Bill to ban aspartame
outright. It will go to House Finance Committee after the Health Committee
referral.

The text of the Resolution follows, and although perhaps tedious and precise to
some, clearly indicates the reasons that such a rescinding of aspartame's
approval by the FDA is appropriate and long overdue, an approval which to its
credit, the FDA rejected for many years before it was forced in 1981 by then
President of G.D. Searle, Donald Rumsfeld.


Measure Title: REQUESTING REVIEW OF EXISTING REPORTS AND STUDIES RELATED TO
ASPARTAME AND RECISSION OF APPROVAL OF ASPARTAME FOR UNITED STATES MARKETS.

Report Title: Aspartame, Approval, Food and Drug Administration

Introducer(s): CARROLL, MCKELVEY, SHIMABUKURO, Awana, Belatti, Brower, Chang,
Ching, Coffman, Evans, Hanohano, Har, Ito, Magaoay, Manahan, Morita, Nakashima,
Nishimoto, Sagum, Takumi, Wakai, Yamane

The Prime Sponsor is Representative Mele Carroll, Chairman of Hawaiian Affairs,
representing East Maui (from Paia and Haiku to Hana and Kaupo), Lana'i,
Moloka'i, Kalaupapa, and Kaho'olawe.

These are the leadership positions held by the cosponsors:

Angus McKelvey: Economic Revitalization, Business, & Military Affairs (Chair)
Maile Shimabukuoro: Hawaiian Affairs (Vice-Chair) Karen Awana: Transportation
(Vice-Chair) Della Au Belatti, J.D.: Member Health, Judiciary Tom Brower: Human
Services (Vice-Chair) Jerry Chang: Higher Education (Chair) Corrine Ching:
Member, Energy and Environmental Protection, Higher Education Denny Coffman:
Energy & Environmental Protection (Vice-Chair) Cindy Evans: Member, Economic
Revitalization, Business, & Military Affairs Faye Hanohano: Public Safety
(Chair) Sharon Har: Interim Task Force on Smart Growth (Chair) Ken Ito: Water,
Land, & Ocean Resources (Chair) Michael Y. Magaoay: Member, Interim Task Force
on Standards of Conduct Joey Manahan: Tourism, Culture, & International Affairs
(Chair) Hermina Morita: Energy & Environmental Protection (Chair) Mark
Nakashima: Higher Education (Vice-Chair) Scott Nishimoto: Health (Vice-Chair)
Roland Sagum III: Member, Finance Roy Takumi: Education (Chair) Glenn Wakai
Consumer Protection & Commerce (Vice-Chair) Ryan Yamane: Health (Chair)

The text is not yet posted on the Hawaii Legislature website, but this is the
identical text from Senate Concurrent Resolution 191 from 2008:

SENATE CONCURRENT

RESOLUTION

REQUESTING THE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES TO
REVIEW EXISTING REPORTS AND STUDIES RELATED TO ASPARTAME, AND REQUESTING THE
UNITED STATES FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION TO RESCIND APPROVAL OF ASPARTAME FOR
UNITED STATES MARKETS.

WHEREAS, aspartame was originally developed as a drug to treat peptic ulcers;
and

WHEREAS, manufacturers state that aspartame is made up of forty per cent
aspartic acid, fifty per cent phenylalanine, and ten per cent methanol; and

WHEREAS, aspartic acid is a nonessential amino acid that is used by the body to
initiate apoptosis or cell death in aging cells, and that excess aspartic acid
from aspartame consumption causes apoptosis in healthy cells that can destroy
healthy tissue, especially in the brain; and

WHEREAS, phenylalanine is an essential amino acid found naturally in protein but
when isolated becomes neurotoxic, lowers the seizure threshold, depletes
serotonin triggering psychiatric and behavioral problems, and interacts with
antidepressants and other drugs; and

WHEREAS, methanol is a severe metabolic poison classified as a narcotic that
converts to formaldehyde and formic acid, and can embalm living tissue and
damage DNA; and

WHEREAS, aspartame metabolites include formaldehyde, a "class A" carcinogen,
diketopiperazine, a brain tumor agent, and formic acid; and

WHEREAS, in 1974, the United States Food and Drug Administration approved
aspartame as an artificial sweetener, but asked its manufacturer Searle to hold
back from selling it on the market until further tests could be made with
regards to its safety; and

WHEREAS, scientific data revealed that there was a problem with aspartame safety
data and the United States Food and Drug Administration withdrew its approval;
and

WHEREAS, in 1975, the United States Food and Drug Administration initiated an
investigation into Searle's laboratory practices and discovered fraud in
scientific experiments as well as manipulated data giving favorable results
proving aspartame to be safe; and

WHEREAS, the results of this investigation are included in what is called "The
Bressler Report" by Jerome Bressler; and

WHEREAS, in 1980, Dr. John Olney submitted scientific data to a United States
Food and Drug Administration Public Board of Inquiry showing that aspartic acid,
the excitotoxic ingredient in aspartame, caused holes in the brains of mice; and

WHEREAS, Dr. John Olney stated that it warranted special emphasis that
excitotoxins act by an acute but silent mechanism requiring only a single
exposure to toxic concentrations for CVO neurons to be quietly destroyed, that
clearly Searle failed to establish the safety of their product, aspartame, for
use in children's food, and that all age comparative data support the following
conclusions: (1) orally administered excitotoxins destroy CVO neurons at any
age; (2) immature animals are most vulnerable; and (3) the toxic threshold
increases only gradually between birth and adulthood; and

WHEREAS, in 1980, the Public Board of Inquiry unanimously voted against
aspartame approval, but was overruled by a new United States Food and Drug
Administration Commissioner, Dr. Arthur Hull Hays, against the advice of Food
and Drug Administration scientific personnel and advisers; and

WHEREAS, the United States Food and Drug Administration approved aspartame use
in sodas, despite the fact that the National Soft Drink Association argued
vehemently against aspartame in these quotes from their protest:

(1) "The present record does not contain data which demonstrate that the use of
APM in soft drinks will not result in the adulteration of the beverages under
section 402(a)(3) of the FDC Act 21 U.S.C. 342(a)(3), which provides that a food
is adulterated if it contains, in whole or in part, "a decomposed substance or
if it is otherwise unfit for foodh;

(2) "An important decomposition product of aspartame, aspartic acid, cannot be
detected at all using TLC";

(3) "G. D. Searle and Company has not demonstrated to a reasonable certainty
that the use of aspartame in soft drinks, without quantitative limitations, will
not adversely affect human health as a result of the changes such use is likely
to cause in brain chemistry and under certain reasonably anticipated conditions
of use"; and

(4) "Specifically, Searle has not met its burdens under section 409....to
demonstrate that aspartame is safe and functional for use in soft drinks.
Collectively, the extensive deficiencies in the stability studies conducted by
Searle to demonstrate that aspartame and its degradation products are safe in
soft drinks intended to be sold in the United States, render those studies
inadequate and unreliable." Senate Congressional Record, May 7, 1985,
S5507--5511; and

WHEREAS, the United States Food and Drug Administration has compiled a list of
ninety-two symptoms attributed to aspartame consumption including four types of
seizures, coma, and death; and

WHEREAS, the Ramazzini Studies by the European Foundation for Oncology in Italy
conducted exhaustive studies over three years with thousands of rats, and proved
aspartame to be a multipotential carcinogen, thus confirming the United States
Food and Drug Administration's original findings; and

WHEREAS, the United States Food and Drug Administration admitted that aspartame
caused cancer over two decades ago when the Administration's toxicologist, Dr.
Adrian Gross, told Congress at least one of Searle's studies "has established
beyond any reasonable doubt that aspartame is capable of inducing brain tumors
in experimental animals and that this predisposition of it is of extremely high
significance....In view of these indications that the cancer causing potential
of aspartame is a matter that had been established way beyond any reasonable
doubt, one can ask: What is the reason for the apparent refusal by the FDA to
invoke for this food additive the so-called Delaney Amendment to the Food, Drug
and Cosmetic Act? Given the cancer causing potential of aspartame how would the
FDA justify its position that it views a certain amount of aspartame as
constituting an allowable daily intake or 'safe' level of it? Is that position
in effect not equivalent to setting a 'tolerance' for this food additive and
thus a violation of that law? And if the FDA itself elects to violate the law,
who is left to protect the health of the public?" Congressional Record, August
1, l985, SID835:131; and

WHEREAS, aspartame is linked to sudden death, multiple sclerosis, lupus, and
many neurodegenerative diseases, as cited in many medical texts, most notably:
Aspartame Disease: An Ignored Epidemic, by H.J. Roberts, M.D., and
Excitotoxins: The Taste That Kills, by Russell Blaylock, M.D.; and

WHEREAS, on November 3, 1987, Dr. Louis Elsas told Congress: "I am a
pediatrician, a Professor of Pediatrics at Emory and have spent twenty-five
years in the biomedical sciences, trying to prevent mental retardation and birth
defect caused by excess phenylalanine, and therein lies my basic concern, that
aspartame is in fact a well known neurotoxin and teratogen which, in some as yet
undefined dose, will. . . irreversibly in the developing child or fetal brain,
produce adverse effects"; and

WHEREAS, there are tens of thousands of case histories and anecdotal accounts
from victims of aspartame poisoning who have come forward to make their case
histories known; now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the Senate of the Twenty-fourth Legislature of the State of
Hawaii, Regular Session of 2008, the House of Representatives concurring, that
the Department of Health is requested to create, within their existing budget,
an evidentiary repository accessible to the public for patients and physicians
to submit over the next year their cases involving victims of aspartame
poisoning; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Director of Health is requested to report to the
Legislature on the status of the evidentiary repository during periodic interim
meetings with the Chairs of the Hawaii State Senate Committees on Health and
Human Services and Public Housing, the House of Representatives Committees on
Health and Human Services and Housing, and the state Attorney General; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Department of Health is requested to review all
existing reports, studies, experiments, and related literature on aspartame,
including clinical studies, differentiating each study by its funding source,
and submit a report to the Legislature no later than twenty days prior to the
convening of the 2009 Regular Session; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the National Academy of Sciences is requested to
review all existing reports, studies, experiments, and related literature on
aspartame, including clinical studies, differentiating each study by its funding
source, and that, if funding is required to undertake this extended evaluation,
that the appropriate funding be sought from various foundations and from
Congress; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that given the enormous amount of evidence that has been
compiled concerning the neurodegenerative harm it can cause, that the United
States Food and Drug Administration is requested to rescind approval of
aspartame immediately on a phase‑out basis over six months to one year; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Concurrent Resolution be
transmitted to the members of Hawaii's Congressional Delegation, the
Commissioner of the United States Food and Drug Administration, the Executive
Director of the National Academy of Sciences, the Director of Health, the
Director of Human Services, the Attorney General, and the Director of Commerce
and Consumer Affairs.

© 2009 The Black Ship - Resolution reported by Stephen Fox
___________________________________________________


[ corrected title ] Hawaii Senate Health Committee will consider resolution
SCR191 by Sen. Suzanne Chun Oakland, and 10 other of 25 Senators, to have FDA
ban aspartame and for National Academy of Sciences to review research: Murray
2008.03.14
http://rmforall.blogspot.com/2008_03_01_archive.htm
Friday, March 14, 2008
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1527

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1525
House Concurrent Resolution #132 for Health Department panel to decide aspartame
ban by early 2010, Hawaii Rep. Josh Green MD, Health Committee Chair: Murray
2008.03.12
http://rmforall.blogspot.com/2008_03_01_archive.htm
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
www.opednews.com/articles/1/opedne_stephen__080311_testimony_re_3a_hawaii.htm

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1505
Hawaiian aspartame ban bills in House and Senate challenge corporate clout, Sen.
J. Kalani English & Suzanne Chun Oakland, Rep. Calvin K.Y. Say & Mele Carroll:
Murray 2008.01.25
http://rmforall.blogspot.com/2008_01_01_archive.htm
Friday, January 25, 2008 ]


formaldehyde, aspartame, and migraines, the first case series, Sharon E
Jacob-Soo, Sarah A Stechschulte, UCSD, Dermatitis 2008 May: Rich Murray
2008.07.18
http://rmforall.blogspot.com/2008_07_01_archive.htm
Friday, July 18, 2008
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1553

High levels of folic acid, a safe, affordable vitamin in fruits and
vegetables, largely prevents formaldehyde and formic acid toxicity in
most people.

It is certain that high levels of aspartame use, above 2 liters daily
for months and years, must lead to chronic formaldehyde-formic acid
toxicity.

Fully 11 % of aspartame is methanol -- 1,120 mg aspartame in 2 liters
diet soda, almost six 12-oz cans, gives 123 mg methanol (wood
alcohol). The methanol is immediately released into the body after
drinking .
Within hours, the liver turns much of the methanol into formaldehyde,
and then much of that into formic acid, both of which in time are
partially eliminated as carbon dioxide and water.

However, about 30 % of the methanol remains in the body as cumulative
durable toxic metabolites of formaldehyde and formic acid -- 37 mg
daily, a gram every month, accumulating in and affecting every tissue.

If only 10 % of the methanol is retained daily as formaldehyde, that
would give 12 mg daily formaldehyde accumulation -- about 60 times
more than the 0.2 mg from 10 % retention of the 2 mg EPA daily limit
for formaldehyde in drinking water.

Bear in mind that the EPA limit for formaldehyde in drinking water is
1 ppm, or 2 mg daily for a typical daily consumption of 2 liters of
water.


formaldehyde and formic acid in FEMA trailers and other sources
(aspartame, dark wines and liquors, tobacco smoke): Murray 2008.01.30
http://rmforall.blogspot.com/2008_01_01_archive.htm
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1508

The FEMA trailers give about the same amount of formaldehyde and
formic acid daily as from a quart of dark wine or liquor, or two
quarts (6 12-oz cans) of aspartame diet soda, from their over 1 tenth
gram methanol impurity (one part in 10,000), which the body quickly
makes into formaldehyde and then formic acid -- enough to be the major
cause of "morning after" alcohol hangovers.

Methanol and formaldehyde and formic acid also result from many fruits
and vegetables, tobacco and wood smoke, heater and vehicle exhaust,
household chemicals and cleaners, cosmetics, and new cars, drapes,
carpets, furniture, particleboard, mobile homes, buildings, leather...
so all these sources add up and interact with many other toxic
chemicals.

methanol impurity in alcohol drinks [ and aspartame ] is turned into
neurotoxic formic acid, prevented by folic acid, re Fetal Alcohol
Syndrome, BM Kapur, DC Lehotay, PL Carlen at U. Toronto, Alc Clin Exp
Res 2007 Dec. plain text: detailed biochemistry, CL Nie et al.
2007.07.18: Murray 2008.02.24
http://rmforall.blogspot.com/2008_02_01_archive.htm
Sunday, February 24, 2008
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1524

opportunities re BA Magnuson, GA Burdock et al., Aspartame Safety
Evaluation 2007 Sept., Critical Reviews in Toxicology:
Rich Murray 2008.07.11
http://rmforall.blogspot.com/2008_07_01_archive.htm
Friday, July 11, 2008
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1550
___________________________________________________


"Of course, everyone chooses, as a natural priority,
to enjoy peace, joy, and love by helping to find,
quickly share, and positively act upon evidence
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://RMForAll.blogspot.com new primary archive

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/messages
group with 137 members, 1,570 posts in a public archive

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartame/messages
group with 1,165 members, 23,285 posts in public archive
___________________________________________________