RTM: Tholen: Diet Coke has 5 ppm formaldehyde from aspartame
5.28.2 rmforall

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/830

Both Tholen in 2002 and Cohen in 1997 found that formaldehyde levels
from aspartame in Diet Coke were lower after weeks at 104 and 130
degrees F.
However, Tholen found about 5 ppm formaldehyde, versus the maximum of
0.231 ppm by Cohen for 7 cans kept 70 days at about 69 degrees F.
This is about 20X more. Could it be that Tholen's Diet Coke was much
older, allowing much more time for its aspartame to decompose into
formaldehyde?
Or did Tholen's Diet Coke contain much higher levels of aspartame to
begin with?
*************************************************************

FOOD & DRUG BRANCH (916) 445-2263
DEPARTMENT OF TOXICS (916) 324-1826
DIVISION OF DRINKING WATER &
ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT (916) 323-2308
http://www.dhs.cahwnet.gov/ps/ddwem/chemicals/AL/actionlevels.htm
California Dept. of Health Services
Drinking Water Action Levels: Contaminants of Current Interest
Last Update: May 2, 2002 [extracts]
Action Levels (ALs) are health-based advisory levels established
by DHS for chemicals in drinking water that lack
maximum contaminant levels (MCLs). Chemicals for
which ALs are established may eventually be regulated
by MCLs, depending on the extent of contamination,
the levels observed, and the risk to human health.

An AL is the level of a contaminant in drinking water
that is considered not to pose a significant health risk to
people ingesting that water on a daily basis. It is calculated
using standard risk assessment methods for
non-cancer and cancer endpoints, and typical exposure assumptions,
including a 2-liter per day ingestion rate, a
70-kilogram adult body weight, and a 70-year lifetime.

Removal of Source from Service (Recommendation):
DHS recommends that the drinking water system take
the source out of service if a contaminant is present at more than:
10 times the AL, if the AL is based on noncancer endpoints.
A level greater than 10 times the AL reduces
the margin of safety provided by the AL.

Formaldehyde (noncancer) 0.1 mg/L [ppm] Action Level
**********************************************************

This means that a level 10X greater, 1 ppm, would not be allowed in
drinking water. For an average 2 L daily drinking water,
that would be 2 mg maxium allowable daily ingestion
of formaldehyde for an adult.

Two liters equals 5.6 12-oz cans of Diet Coke, which, according to
Tholen, would provide as much as 5 ppm formaldehyde, 28 mg,
14X more than the California allowable limit. Likewise, the methanol
supplied, 112 mg in 2 L Diet Coke, is 14X the EPA limit for drinking
water. Many aspartame reactors, reporting a typical serious
symptom suite, use diet drinks and other sources of aspartame at
a level of 2 L daily and more.

http://www.dorway.com/wmonte.txt
Dr. Woodrow C. Monte, "Aspartame: Methanol, and the Public Health,"
Journal of Applied Nutrition, Volume 36, No. 1, pages 42-54, 1984.
(62 references) Professsor of Food Science
Director of the Food Science and Nutrition Laboratory
Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona 85287
6411 South River Drive #61 Tempe, Arizona 85283-3337
602-965-6938 woody.monte@...
The methanol from 2 L of diet soda, 5.6 12-oz cans, 20 mg/can, is
112 mg, 10% of the aspartame. The EPA limit for water is 7.8 mg daily
for methanol (wood alcohol), a deadly cumulative poison. Many users
drink 1-2 L daily. The reported symptoms are entirely consistent
with chronic methanol toxicity. (Fresh orange juice has 34 mg/L, but,
like all juices, has 16 times more ethanol, which strongly protects
against methanol.)
**************************************************************

Subject: [Aspartame Support] Re: My Science Project
(Duplicated Jennifer Cohen's Diet Coke experiment!)
Congratulations!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Date: Mon, 27 May 2002 02:57:24 -0400
From: Betty Martini <bettym19@...>
To: "Randy Tholen" <tholens@...>

Dear Ryan:

Congratulations. This is wonderful, that we now have it by two
students. I bet Dr. H. J. Roberts is going to give you two of his Gold
Stars for this! Jennifer Cohen's experiment was published in the Food
Chemical News and I'll send them a copy of this so they know its been
replicated. I would personally like to have a copy of the report and
analysis from the laboratory. And I'll be happy to send you some more
information.

I'll put this on the media list so everyone will know and I bet you'll
get a lot of emails.

Here's my address:

Mrs. Betty Martini
Mission Possible International
9270 River Club Parkway
Duluth, Georgia 30097

Be sure to send me your address and you can expect a nice packet
back. Please keep me uptodate. When we get your complete report and
analysis we will add it to the www.dorway.com web site.

All my best, Betty 770 242-2599

3/23/2002 -0600, you wrote:
Hello!
You probably do not know me. My name is Ryan Tholen.
I am a 5th Grader at St. Mary's school in Tracy, MN.
Every year the 5th and 6th
graders do a science fair project that gets judged at the school's
annual science fair and the two top projects from both grades go to the
regional science fair at Mankato, MN.
For my science project this year, I chose to
do a similar project to the "famous" project that Jennifer Cohen did on
aspartame. I named my project "NUTRASWEET OR NUTRAPOISON?

I put a mixture of expired and unexpired Diet Coke
in an incubator, a refrigerator, and
in a place at room temperature. After several weeks I sent samples from
each of the three environments to the Braun Intertec lab in Edina, MN.
(this cost $180) Let me tell you, I could hardly believe my results!
The refrigerated sample had 5.1 parts per million of formaldehyde,
the incubated sample had 4.8 parts per million,
the sample at room temperature had 4.3 parts per million,
and the new can had 4.9 parts per million of formaldehyde in it.

These results prove that unexpired
aspartame is still bad for you. At the science fair, I got a judge that
drinks diet coke. At the end of my presentation I grabbed the diet coke
can I had on display and asked her, " Care for a Diet Coke?".
She gave me the " do you think I'm going to drink that poison?" look,
and walked away. I will be advancing to the regionals on April 20th.

Sincerely, Ryan Tholen

http://www.geocities.com/aspartame_survivors/tholen.html report
[extracts]

1. Refrigerator 5.1 Parts Per Million
2. Incubator 4.0 Parts Per Million
2A. Heated to 130 degrees* 4.1 Parts Per Million
3. Room Temperature 4.3 Parts Per Million
4. Incubator 4.8 Parts Per Million
5. New can 4.9 Parts Per Million

* Sample 2A is the same as sample 2 but was heated in the lab to
130 degrees F to simulate sitting in direct sunlight on a hot day.

Braun Intertec lab in Edina, MN

Braun Intertec Corporation Lab Contact/Phone: B. KaIz/952-942-1774
*****************************************************************

Braun Intertec Corporation http://www.brauncorp.com/
(800) 279-6100 (952) 941-5600 Fax: (952) 833-4701
Mail: 6875 Washington Ave. S. Minneapolis, MN 55439
E-Mail: Webmaster@...
*****************************************************************

http://www.dorway.com/jcohen.html Jennifer Cohen report in April, 1997

[extracts]

THE EFFECTS OF DIFFERENT STORAGE TEMPERATURES ON THE
TASTE AND CHEMICAL COMPOSITION OF DIET COKE
BY JENNIFER COHEN

Jennifer Cohen is an eleven-year old student in Mrs. Simmons' sixth
grade Oradell, New Jersey class. The principal of Oradell Public School

is Scott Ryan. He may be reached at 201 261-1181. Jennifer conducted
an experiment proving aspartame, the artificial sweetener in diet soda,
breaks down into two deadly neurotoxins when stored at room temperature
and under refrigeration.

METHOD: I did my own experiment on aspartame. On January 21, l997, I
bought a new case of Diet Coke from the supermarket.
I put 7 cans in the refrigerator, 7 cans in my room at room temperature
(about 69 degrees) and
I put 7 cans in a BOEKEL incubator (80 Watts, 120 AC volts, 0.75 Amps,
catalog # 131500) and set the temperature at 40 degrees Celsius which
is 104 degrees Fahrenheit. I left them in there for 10 weeks (70 days).

I had a thermometer next to each group of cans and I checked the
temperatures daily.
I took the remaining three cans and brought them to
Winston Laboratories in Ridgefield, New jersey to test for a beginning
level of aspartame. When I got the test results back, they revealed
that there was normally 0.06 per cent of aspartame in the can of diet
soda.

I chose that temperature because in l985 the National Soft Drink
Association reported a similar experiment in which diet soda stored at
that temperature turned into formaldehyde. In that experiment they
explained that 104 degrees Fahrenheit was equal to a daytime
temperature in Phoenix, Arizona over the summer.
The National Soft Drink Association
recommended that aspartame not be approved for use by people in soda.
They published this experiment and their recommendation in the
Congressional Record.
[ http://www.dorway.com/nsda.html July 28, 1983 ]

On April 1, I took the cans of aspartame out of the refrigerator,
out of my room and out of the incubator.
That day I brought the samples to Winston Laboratory for analysis.

I was going to do a taste in my sister's fourth grade class, but the
school nurse said that I couldn't because of all the bad things people
say about aspartame, so instead I tested the samples on a group of
adults.

I performed a double blind experiment. My mother helped to label each
sample with a number. I conducted the experiment but I did not know
which sample each person was drinking. I put all of the cans in a
cooler and covered them with ice so that they would be served at the
same temperature.
I gave each person a small cup of the soda from the
refrigerator, from the incubator, from my room, and from a new can of
soda fresh from the supermarket. I asked them to rate the taste on a
scale of one to four, four being the worst and one being the best.
The actual results are to be found in table #1.

Table 1

ROOM COLD WARM NEW
TEMP. STORAGE STORAGE CAN
SAMPLE SAMPLE SAMPLE SAMPLE
#517 #502 #540 #563

SUBJECT #1 4 4 4 3
SUBJECT #2 3 2 4 1
SUBJECT #3 2 3 3 2
SUBJECT #4 1 2 4 2
SUBJECT #5 2 2 4 1
SUBJECT #6 2 3 4 1
SUBJECT #7 2 3 3 4
SUBJECT #8 3 2 4 3
SUBJECT #9 3 2 4 1
SUBJECT #10 3 3 4 2
AVERAGE 2.5 2.6 3.8 2.0

Table #2 contains the results of the testing conducted on the samples
analyzed by Winston Laboratories. In the sample that was in the
refrigerator all that was left of the 0.06 per cent of the aspartame was

0.058 percent. That extra aspartame had turned into
0.001 percent DKP and 53.5 parts per billion of formaldehyde.
In the sample from my room, all that was left of the 0.06 per
cent aspartame was 0.051 per cent. The extra aspartame
had turned into 0.002 percent DKP and 231 parts per
billion of formaldehyde. In the sample that was in the incubator all
that was left of the 0.06 percent aspartame was 0.026 per cent.
The extra aspartame had turned into 0.010 per cent DkP and
76.2 parts per billion in the formaldehyde.

Table 2

ASPARTAME DKP FORMALDEHYDE
% % Parts per billion

BASELINE CAN 0.060% * *

SAMPLE # 502 0.058% 0.001% 53.5
(refrigerated)

SAMPLE # 517 0.051% 0.002% 231.0
(room temperature)

SAMPLE #540 0.026% 0.010% 76.2
(incubator)

SAMPLE # 563 * * *
(new can)

* Sample #563 (new can of Diet Coke was not tested by the lab. It was
used for the taste test only. The baseline can was not tested for
formaldehyde or DKP because it was assumed that FDA would ban any new
product containing poison. The total cost of testing was $1250. This
may not be a lot of money to a drug company but it is to me. As it is,
I will be baby-sitting for the summer of 1997 to pay for this study. -JC

DISCUSSION: There was an obvious preference for the newly purchased
sample of Diet Coke. The scores for the sample in the refrigerator and
room temperature were similar but were not as high as the new soda.
The score for the incubator sample were very low. Nearly everybody
hated the taste.

There are taste differences. Ten people preferred the new soda to the
other three samples. With 1 being the best and 4 being the worst,
their average score for the new soda was 2.0.

The aspartame contained in diet soda stored over time can break down
into formaldehyde and DKP, two very dangerous poisons. Taste tests
revealed a noticeable difference among tasters.
The higher the heat of storage, the worse the taste.

Diet soda stored for ten weeks loses flavor. Aspartame in that soda
breaks down into two products, formaldehyde and DKP. The warmer the
temperature, the greater the loss of aspartame and the greater the
increase in DKP.

Temperature creates two effects. First, the higher the temperature of
storage, the higher the level of DKP in the soda. Second, room
temperature seems to create the highest levels of formaldehyde in soda.
At very high temperatures, the formaldehyde breaks down. However, even
stored in a refrigerator at cold temperature, the aspartame breaks down
into formaldehyde.

After diet soda containing aspartame is purchased it should not be
stored in the heat or under any condition for a long period of time.
Further research should be performed with more samples at
different temperatures for different time periods
so that safety levels can be determined.

Concerning aspartame, the FDA says, "we believe that based on all the
information that we received to date that this is a safe product." I
say, "Decide for yourself." Jennifer Cohen

Bibliography
1) Artificial Sweeteners. "The World Book Encyclopedia" 1997
2) Azarnoff, Daniel. "Aspartame" McGraw-Hill.
Encyclopedia of Science and Technology 1987
3) Constantine, Alex. "The NutraPoison"
http://www.dorway.com/possible.html (items 26 and 27) March 13, 1997
4) Jibrin, Janis. "How Sweet It Is."
American Health December 1995: 84-85
5) Jibrin, Janis. "Is Sugar Poison?"
Mademoiselle December 1995: 84-85
6) Lepke, Janet. "A Dieter's Guide To Sugar Substitutes."
Consumer's Digest May/June 1995: 71-74
7) Rao, K.S., McConnell, R.G., Waisman, H.A. SC-18862
52 Week Oral Toxicity Study In The Infant Monkey
8) Roberts, H.J. Aspartame (Nutra Sweet) Is It Safe?
Philadelphia: The Charles Press, 1990]
9) Roberts, H.J. Sweetener Dearest. West Palm Beach:
The Sunshine Sentinel Press, 1992

IF you have a strong need to confirm:
For those who require independent confirmation of all facts
Winston Laboratories located in Ridgefield, New Jersey,
(201-440-0022) ran the tests on the diet cokes used in this
experiment.
***********************************************************

Rich Murray, MA Room For All rmforall@...
1943 Otowi Road, Santa Fe NM USA 87505 505-986-9103

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/messages for 804 posts
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/657 45K post
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/763 30K post

http://www.dorway.com/tldaddic.html 5-page review
"Aspartame (NutraSweet) Addiction"
H.J. Roberts in "Townsend Letter", Jan 2000 HJRobertsMD@...
http://www.sunsentpress.com/ sunsentpress@...
Sunshine Sentinel Press P.O.Box 17799 West Palm Beach, FL 33416
800-814-9800 561-588-7628 561-547-8008 fax

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/669
1038-page medical text "Aspartame Disease: An Ignored Epidemic"
published May 30 2001 $ 85.00 postpaid data from 1200 cases
available at http://www.amazon.com
over 600 references from standard medical research
http://www.aspartameispoison.com/contents.html 34 chapters
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/790
RTM: Moseley:
review Roberts "Aspartame Disease: An Ignored Epidemic" 2.7.2 rmforall

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/652
Ann Pharmacother 2001 Jun;35(6):702-6
Relief of fibromyalgia symptoms following
discontinuation of dietary excitotoxins.
terpening@... cterpeni@...
Smith JD, Terpening CM, Schmidt SO, Gums JG.
Malcolm Randall Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Gainesville, FL, USA.
gums@... siggy@...

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/782
RTM: Smith, Terpening, Schmidt, Gums:
full text: aspartame, MSG, fibromyalgia 1.17.2 rmforall

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/628
Rich Murray: Professional House Doctors: Singer: EPA: CPSC:
formaldehyde toxicity 6.10.1 rmforall

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/645
Rich Murray: 18 recent formaldehyde toxicity [Comet assay] abstracts
6.25.1 rmforall
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