RTM: Merisant Co., MSD Capital, Dell Computer Corp., NutraSweet Co.,
JW Childs Assc.: aspartame-neotame toxicity 7.10.2 rmforall

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/841

http://www.merisant.com/pages/homepage.asp
http://www.merisant.com/pages/about_merisant/biographies.asp
Karl T. Sestak, Communications
The Merisant Company
10 South Riverside Plaza, Suite 850
Chicago, Illinois 60606
312.840.6000 fax 312.840.5146

July 10, 2002 Hello Karl T. Sestak,

I last called and emailed you on 10.18.00.

Since March, 2000, Merisant Company has been a world manufacturer
of aspartame products, supplying over a third of the world market
in over 100 countries.

On late Friday, July 5, the FDA announced its approval of Neotame
(Sweetener 2000), based on its review of "over 113 studies in animals
and humans". So, I promptly checked PubMed, which had 5 listings,
none of which were about animal or human toxicity or dispositions
in the body, whereas for aspartame there are now 701 listings.

You may search among 11 million medical citations on PubMed for any
topic or author, and for many studies get an abstract summary:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/PubMed/ .

It is remarkable to me that searches on Google or AllTheWeb reveal no
published studies about neotame safety, although Sweetener 2000 is
mentioned since 1987. Common sense would appraise that if neotame was
soundly safe, the industry would rush to publicize the research. After
all, the world sweetener market is fiercely competitive, with billion
dollar stakes. It is also notable that few, if any, neotame products
are in Australia and New Zealand since the ANZFA approval there last
summer.

I am already contacting groups like
Food Intolerance Network of Australia, whose Net newsletter
has 955 members, to ask if those who are sensitive
to a variety of chemicals, including aspartame, are reporting problems
with any neotame products:

failsafe_newsletter-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
http://www.fedupwithfoodadditives.info .

Note their thorough list at
http://www.fedupwithfoodadditives.info/alladditives.html ,

which, as yet, does not include neotame.

Can a corporation safely survive in this era of publicly disseminated
information, save by only selling absolutely safe substances?
Wouldn't any strategy of "information management",
the longer and more apparently successful it seems to operate,
inevitably result in an even more catastrophic denounment,
just as in the recent collapses of Enron and WorldCom?

Obviously, health and safety issues, for the common good,
must be thoroughly aired in public arenas.
The Net makes this inevitable.

If you provide a list of the 113 studies, abstracts and full texts,
many will review them carefully, and be very happy to give
them the public approval they surely deserve. This would be the most
expeditious way to launch a truly safe substance. Put every word of
every study on a public website, along with a permanent uncensored,
public, archived email forum.
Or, as in the case of aspartame, equivalent sites
will emerge from the dire need of the people: http://www.dorway.com .

http://www.hoovers.com/uk/co/capsule/5/0,2163,100515,00.html

http://www.merisant.com
http://www.merisant.com/pages/contact/index.asp
estimated 2001 revenues over $ 500 million, 700 employees

"With its nearly 20 brands, Merisant has more than just an Equal share
of the tabletop sweetener market. Fueled by Equal and its other
flagship brand, Canderel, Merisant controls more than one-third of the
market. Its aspartame-based products are sold in more than 100
countries; customers outside the US account for more than half of its
sales. Merisant was formed in 2000 when a group of investors (including
Pegasus Capital Advisors, MSD Capital, and Brener International)
bought the tabletop sweetener operations of biotech firm Monsanto.
(Monsanto's NutraSweet-brand aspartame business -- a supplier to
Merisant -- was sold to J.W. Childs Equity Partners.)
A Searle scientist discovered aspartame in 1965;
Canderel debuted in 1979."

http://www.hoovers.com/uk/co/capsule/3/0,2163,58863,00.html

http://www.msdcapital.com
http://www.msdcapital.com/management.html
MSD Capital LP 50 staff in 2001
645 Fifth Avenue, 21st Floor
NY, NY 10022-5910
212-303-1650 fax 212-303-1620 recruiting@...

"Poor, poor Michael Dell: too much money and nowhere to put it. That's
where MSD Capital comes in. Taking its name from Dell's initials, the
investment firm handles the Dell Computer founder's
personal investments in companies outside his namesake business,
allowing him to focus on making PCs.
Dell bankrolled MSD with approximately $1 billion in seed
money in 1998 with the mandate to invest in promising technology
startups and other companies; it has backed online bridal service
WeddingChannel.com, among others. In addition to VC
investing, MSD Capital invests in public stocks and private equity
deals, including LBOs and MBOs. The firm will occasionally invest in
other investment firms' limited partnership funds."

http://www.dell.com/us/en/gen/default.htm
http://www.dell.com/us/en/gen/corporate/media_media.htm
http://www.dell.com/us/en/gen/corporate/biography/biography_generic_michael_dell\
.htm

http://www.dell.com/la/us/en/gen/corporate/michael.htm
Dell Computer Corporation
512-728-4100 Media Relations Team

http://www.hoovers.com/uk/co/capsule/4/0,2163,101064,00.html

http://www.nutrasweet.com
http://www.nutrasweet.com/infocenter/nscompany/contact/index.asp
The NutraSweet Company
10 S. Wacker Dr., Ste. 3200 Chicago, IL 60606 USA
Phone: +1 312-873-5000 Fax: +1 312-873-5050

$ 260 million revenues in 2000
375 employees in 2001, + 7.1% growth in a year.

Chairman Tim Healy
President and CEO Nick E. Rosa [former Monsanto Senior Vice President]
CFO William Schumacher

Investment firm J.W. Childs bought NutraSweet from Monsanto in 2000;
NutraSweet management also has a stake in the company.

http://www.jwchilds.com/
J. W. Childs Associates, L.P.
111 Huntington Avenue - Suite 2900
Boston, MA 02199-7610
617-753-1100 617-753-1101 info@...

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

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/840
RTM: NutraSweet Co.: Neotame toxicity questions 7.9.2 rmforall

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/830
RTM: Tholen: Diet Coke has 5 ppm formaldehyde from aspartame
5.29.2 rmforall
For 6 cans of diet soda, this is 5 times the daily limit of 1 PPM for
formaldehyde in drinking water, set by the EPA and the
California Dept. of Health Services,
Div. Drinking Water and Environmental Management (916) 323-2308
Drinking Water Action Levels: Contaminants of Current Interest
Last Update: May 2, 2002

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/804
RTM: Hetle & Eltervaag: 2001 thesis
abstract: aspartame brain damage in mice:
Sonnewald 1995 study full text 2.17.2 rmforall

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/752
Headache 2001 Oct;41(9):899-901
Migraine MLT-Down: An Unusual Presentation of Migraine
in Patients With Aspartame-Triggered Headaches.
[Merck 10-mg Maxalt-MLT, for migraine, has 4 mg aspartame,
while 12 oz diet soda has 200 mg.]
Newman LC, Lipton RB. RLipton@...
Headache Institute, St. Lukes-Roosevelt Hospital Center, New York
NY Department of Neurology
Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY
Innovative Medical Research

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/346
WebMD: Barclay: Barth:
survey shows aspartame hurts memory in students 11.9.00
http://www.psy.tcu.edu/psy/barth.htm
Timothy M. Barth Department of Psychology t.barth@...
Texas Christian University TCU Box 298920 Fort Worth, TX 76129
Chairman, Physiological Psychology 817-921-7410

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/760
Magnes Res 2001 Sep;14(3):189-94
The effect of oral aspartame administration on the
balance of magnesium in the rat.
Kovatsi L, Tsouggas M.
Laboratory of Forensic Medicine & Toxicology, Faculty of Medicine
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece kovatsi@...

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/689
Measurement of molecular interaction of aspartame and
its metabolites with DNA. Clin Biochem. 1998 Jul;31(5):405-7.
Karikas GA, Schulpis KH, Reclos GJ, Kokotos G.
Dept. of Chemistry, University of Athens, Greece
http://www.chem.uoa.gr gkokotos@...

http://ww.presidiotex.com/barcelona/index.html
Life Sci June 26 1998; 63(5): 337-49
Formaldehyde derived from dietary aspartame binds to tissue
components in vivo. ["Trok-ho"]
Trocho C, Pardo R, Rafecas I, Virgili J, Remesar X,
Fernandez-Lopez JA, Alemany M, Departament de Bioquimica i
Biologia Molecular, Facultat de Biologia, Universitat de Barcelona,
Spain. http://www.presidiotex.com/barcelona/index.html
Maria Alemany, PhD alemany@...

Two teams find hot aspartame releases DKP, a potent carcinogen:
Food Addit Contam 2000 Oct; 17(10): 821-7
Simultaneous formation and detection of the reaction product of
solid-state aspartame sweetener by FT-IR/DSC microscopic system.
Lin SY, Cheng YD
Biopharmaceutics Laboratory,
Department of Medical Research & Education
Veterans General Hospital-Taipei, Shih-Pai, Taiwan,
Republic of China. sylin@...
and
J Pharm Sci 1998 Apr; 87(4): 508-13
Hydration and dehydration behavior of aspartame hemihydrate.
Leung SS, Padden BE, Munson EJ, Grant DJ
Department of Pharmaceutics, College of Pharmacy,
University of Minnesota, Minneapolis 55455-0343, USA.
Sophie S. Leung, PhD
Dolores J. Grant, PhD grant1@...

http://www.medscape.com/MedGenMed/braintumors
Lennart Hardell, M.D., PhD, in 1999 reported in Sweden that both
cell phone use and heavy aspartame use correlate with increased
brain cancers lennart.hardell@... +46 19 602 15 46

http://www.dorway.com/blayenn.html dodd@...
Russell L. Blaylock, M.D. russell@... 601-982-1175
"Excitotoxins, Neurodegeneration and Neurodevelopment"
The Medical Sentinel Journal Fall, 1999 , (95 references)

http://www.dorway.com/barua.html
Journal Of The Diabetic Association Of India
1995 Vol. 35, No. 4. Emerging Facts About Aspartame
Dr. J. Barua (ophthalmic surgeon), Dr. Arun Bal (surgeon)
(79 references) barua@...
"...the total amount of methanol absorbed will be approximately
10% of aspartame ingested. An EPA assessment of methanol states
that methanol "is considered a cumulative poison due to the low rate
of excretion once it is absorbed." The absorbed methanol is then
slowly converted to formaldehyde..."
"Reaction of formaldehyde with DNA has been observed,
by spectrophotometry and electron microscopy, to result in
irreversible denaturation."
"DKP has been implicated in the occurence of brain tumors."

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

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/622
Rich Murray: Gold: Koehler: Walton: Van Den Eeden: Leon:
aspartame toxicity 6.4.1 rmforall

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/623
Rich Murray: Simmons: Gold: Schiffman: Spiers:
aspartame toxicity 6.4.1 rmforal
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