From: Jaffe, Lyle D Sent: Tuesday, February 01, 2005 7:48 AM To: Dockets, FDA Subject: FW: Open Letter to Wrigley Australia. Stop using the chemical poison aspartame -----Original Message----- From: Dr. Betty Martini,D.Hum. [mailto:Bettym19@mindspring.com] Sent: Saturday, January 29, 2005 5:56 PM To: bstrang-wrigley.com.au Subject: Open Letter to Wrigley Australia. Stop using the chemical poison aspartame Dear Mrs. Strang, >I have been forwarded your letter to Ms. Bouman. She wrote about the >seriousness of using this deadly chemical poison, aspartame >(NutraSweet/Equal,E951,Canderel, etc.) in your gum. And what did you >do? Sent a form note that basically says as long as it has been approved >by a government you can use it and who cares what happens to the >people. Wrigley knows how deadly it is. How could anyone not know after >being on the market for over 20 years. The FDA of this country lists 92 >documented symptoms triggered by aspartame from four types of seizures to >coma and death (http://www.dorway.com) Wrigleys has been written to years >and when they wouldn't change to a safe substitute they were sued several >months ago in California for poisoning consumers. Today there are over a 1/4 of a million web sites warning all consumers off this deadly neurotoxin including http://www.wnho.net which has the most recent press releases, and http://holisticmed.com/aspartame, the Aspartame Toxicity Center recording the mounting cases of sickness, disability and death. Today in the US there are even aspartame detoxification centers. One of them will be interviewed in the new documentary coming out soon on how to help the millions poisoned by this neurotoxin. There are support groups including the new Aspartame Information and Support Group on http://www.wnho.net (click on aspartame, and it tells you how to subscribe under the pictures of products that contain this toxin). Flying Safety, the U.S. Air Force magazine revealed: (May, l992) "The effects of aspartame can be passed directly to the fetus, even in very small doses. People have disorders with doses as small as that carried in a single stick of chewing gum. This could mean a pilot who drinks diet sodas is more susceptible to flicker vertigo or to flicker-induced epileptic activity ... all pilots are potential victims of sudden memory loss during instrument flight and gradual loss of vision." Gum is one of the most serious products with aspartame because its buccal, and since aspartame is actually a neurotoxic drug masquerading as an additive it works like nitroglycerin under the tongue, goes through saliva straight to the brain. A couple of years ago the University of Georgia TV Station did an expose here in Atlanta on aspartame and one of the women interviewed was someone who never used aspartame until someone handed her a piece of aspartame laced gum. She had a grand mal seizure immediately and almost died. Aspartame has been proven to be a seizure triggering drug. Even one of the pivotal studies that approved aspartame, a 52 week oral toxicity study where seven infant monkeys were fed the toxin revealed that 5 had grand mal seizures and one died. This pivotal study called the RAO is on http://www.dorway.com in completion for your review. Even as far back as l986 there were complaints about these seizures. From Knight News Service, Boston, the Florida Times Union on Thursday 4/24/86 published an article, "2 Scientists Question FDA About Safe Use Of Nutrasweet". From that article these comments: " .. two scientists, Dr. Richard Wurtman, director of the Clinical Research Center at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Dr. Donald Schomer, head of the seizure units at Children's Hospital and Beth Israel Hospital in Boston, met with FDA officials on Monday in Washington to share their concerns about NutraSweet. .. "Wurtman said 86 persons have contacted him, all unsolicited, complaining of seizures after consuming varying amounts of NutraSweet. None was shown to have underlying brain abnormalities that could have caused the seizures, he said. "The FDA said Tuesday that an additional 80 persons have contacted the agency with complaints of seizures after using NutraSweet." That was almost 20 years ago and today victims using this poison have had thousands of seizures. In fact, I attended the Conference of the American College of Physicians and Surgeons with Dr. H. J. Roberts some years ago. In one of the workshops the first thing the professor of neurology said was: "Can any physician tell us, even if its off the wall, why consumers all over the US are having seizures for no reason at all. Be assured they were told. There is 50% phenylalanine in aspartame which as an isolate is neurotoxic. Dr. Wurtman told Congress in l985 the phenylalanine in aspartame goes directly into the brain and lowers the seizure threshold. Further, aspartame depletes insulin from the brain, so the victim can also go into hypoglycemia and then into seizure. But this is the tip of the iceberg, because with aspartame being on the market so long it is now known how many diseases it triggers, so that Dr. Roberts when declaring aspartame disease a global plague published the medical text on it titled Aspartame Disease: An Ignored Epidemic, www.sunsentpress.com It is 1038 pages of symptoms and diseases and horrors triggered by this poison including drug interactions. For instance, if someone has an aspartame seizure from chewing Wrigley's gum which they have so many times (having taken the complaints for 13 years) they may be given anti-seizure medication. Aspartame interacts with Dilantin and like anti-seizure medication. According to Dr. James Bowen, because aspartame damages the mitochondria or life of the cell it will interact with ALL MEDICATIONS. He also has explained that aspartame causes polychemical sensitivity syndrome which is the same as multiple chemical sensitivity syndrome so will also interact with other toxins like fluoride, vaccinations and even other unsafe sweeteners like Splenda or sucralose which is a chlorinated hydrocarbon (these are usually classified as insecticides) and acesulfame potassium which caused cancer and leukemia in original studies. It has an additive and synergistic effect with MSG: (http://truthinlabeling.org) For years Wrigley's has been given this information, so rather than caring about the safety of consumers and taking aspartame out, they decided to cause more sickness and disability by putting aspartame in almost all of their products and mixing with other unsafe sweeteners like the two mentioned above. This shows the intent of Wrigley's since all the evidence against aspartame is a matter of public record including three congressional hearings because of the outrage of the public being poisoned. The behavior of Wrigley's is obscene, that they would care this little about the health of the people. A lot of people knew some of Wrigley's products did not have aspartame so they used them, never looking at the label. One man in North Dakota who had almost died from aspartame, chewed a piece as he drove along the highway and almost ran off the road as he got dizzy. He had no idea they had reformulated with aspartame in some products, that originally didn't have it. Dizziness is #2 on the FDA list of 92 symptoms. Aspartame completely destroys the central nervous system. The deadly effects of aspartame are also discussed in Excitotoxins: The Taste That Kills and Health & Nutrition Secrets To Save Your Life by neurosurgeon Russell Blaylock, M.D,. http://www.russellblaylockmd.com Usually when a company doesn't care how many people will die from their product and have no excuse for using a poison that has been demonstrated to kill beyond any shadow of a doubt, they fall back on the fact government's have approved it, so they can use a poison if they want to. And that's what you have done. Wrigley's is shameful because they know. Food Standards Australia and New Zealand have been written so many times about aspartame I've lost count. Dr. Roberts has written them as well as consumers and doctors in Australia. They just disregard it, like you, say its been approved, so we don't have to do anything. As to the European Union, you can't tell me they don't know how deadly aspartame is because I was there last time they did a review. I flew to Brussels and met with Miguel-Angel Granero Rosell and Peter Wagstaffe. I walked in with a huge medical text on the global plague that is as large as our Atlanta phone book and showed them that these diseases from this toxins have all been documented and even the mechanism by which aspartame triggers disease has been explained. Like government officials who aren't going to do anything because their loyalty is to industry they did not even look through the book. I gave them damaging research on the toxin as well as evidence that industry studies were flawed. In fact, they were even given Dr. Ralph Walton's research he showed on 60 Minutes when Dr. John Olney made world news in l996 about the brain tumor and aspartame association. This has to do with scientific peer reviewed research and funding. Only industry controlled research ever said it was safe but 92% of independent scientific peer reviewed research all showed the problems. And if you eliminate 6 studies the FDA had something to do with because they are now called the handmaiden of the pharmaceutical and chemical industry, and one pro-industry summary, 100 per cent of independent, peer reviewed scientific studies show the problems. So who would you believe, industry engaged in negotiated research defending their product or independent, unbiased researchers trying to find the truth? How does industry negotiate? They have a front group for research funds called ILSE, Life Sciences made up of companies like Coke, and manufacturers of aspartame. You can read the UPI investigation on www.dorway.com and www.wnho.net and see Dr. Wurtman himself was threatened if he did studies on aspartame and seizures research funds to MIT would be denied, and they were. Today MIT gets research funds and Dr. Wurtman no longer speaks out about aspartame. That's the way it is done. The European Union eliminated all the damning research and used the flawed research. The committee had industry people on it. They didn't even read their own research. It was as if they were making it up as they went along. You will find the complete rebuttal, over 50 pages of what the European Union did on http://www.wnho.net Click on aspartame. One of the most serious problem aspartame triggers is an irregular heart rhythm. Aspartame interacts with all cardiac medication. It damages the cardiac conduction system and causes sudden death. Athletes in particular are dropping dead constantly. They are always in the news. And sudden death has become so epidemic that defibrillators are now being sold over the counter. This is what aspartame has done to the world. It is destroying families because it damages the hypothalamus of the brain and the mitochondria, and ruins female sexual response and triggers male sexual dysfunction. Dr. James Bowen explained the hypothalamus is located in the floor of the fourth ventricle. It is the coordinator of the master gland of the neuroendocrine system, the pituitary gland. The hypothalamus is heavily damaged by this stream of excitotoxins from aspartame. The white matter lining the ventricles and the nuclei and tracts of the brain stem and upper spinal cord are heavily damaged by this excitotoxin in the CSF as well. They are by this secretory process, richly bathed in CSF to nourish them, but in the case of aspartame, it is also destroying them, along with their vital myelin sheaths and nuclei. The aspartame neuroendocrine damage in the female is often accompanied by a rapid onset of amenorrhea and infertility, soon after beginning the consumption of aspartame. Then if the woman gets off aspartame long enough to get pregnant, it is also an abortifacient. If a live child manages to be born it is also a teratogen and can trigger birth defects and mental retardation. And even if that live child appears okay at the time when he reaches puberty you may see the effect like behavioral problems, brought out in Dr. Blaylock's book. And aspartame may have heinously damaged the DNA for generations to come. Now you want to talk about our FDA. There was a time when they were intact and tried to do a good job, many years ago, before there was so much loyalty to industry, and this well known revolving door. In fact, their two FDA toxicologists, Dr. Adrian Gross and Dr. Jacqueline Verrett were considered heros when it came to aspartame and tried to prevent approval. It was Dr. John Olney, who founded the field of neuroscience, and one of the most renowned neuroscientists on the planet who attempted to prevent approval and asked for the help of Attorney James Turner in Washington, D.C. Dr. Olney did the studies on aspartic acid in l970 and found it to be an excitotoxin, product that literally stimulates the neurons of the brain to death. The FDA agreed with Dr. Olney and not only would not approve aspartame but they asked that Searle, the original manufacturer be indicted. Both U.S. Prosecutors hired on with the defense team and the statute of limitations expired. Still the FDA would not allow aspartame on the market for 16 years. This is when Don Rumsfeld, Secretary of Defense, was CEO of Searle and said he would call in his markers and get it approved anyway. This is in the Congressional Record and UPI Investigation on web. No wonder aspartame disease is many times referred to as Rumsfeld Disease. How would you like to walk into a room of the real experts on aspartame and get nothing but the truth? Get to see the suffering of the victims and even the wife of Charles Fleming who died of aspartame, in prison sentenced to 50 years for poisoning her husband with methanol. Aspartame liberates free methyl alcohol, classified as a narcotic. Several doctors have seen the autopsy and written affidavits it was aspartame that murdered her husband. If you care about the victims suffering horrendous reactions from Wrigley's simply email cori@soundandfuryproductions.com Get the Aspartame Documentary, Sweet Misery: A Poisoned World. In this movie you will get to see Doctors Roberts, Blaylock, Bowen, Walton, and even hear Dr. Olney's work discussed. You will hear the real story of Aspartame approval from James Turner, Attorney, himself. He will tell you how Don Rumsfeld was on President Reagan's transition team. The day after President Reagan took office he appointed Arthur Hull Hayes as commissioner of the FDA to approve aspartame, since no other FDA Commissioner would allow it on the market. But President Reagan knew it might take 30 days to get Hayes to the FDA and the current FDA Commissioner might make it impossible to have aspartame approval brought up again. So President Reagan actually wrote AN EXECUTIVE ORDER making the current FDA Commissioner powerless to do anything about aspartame until Hayes got there. When he did the FDA set up a Board of Inquiry of the best scientists they had. This Board decided aspartame was not safe and caused brain tumors and revoked the petition for approval. But Hayes was there to approve aspartame and he simply over-ruled the Board of Inquiry. Then he went to work for the PR Agency of the manufacturer for $1000.00 a day and has refused to talk to the press ever since. And this is how aspartame got approved. Needless to say, pharmaceutical and chemical companies have bottomless checkbooks, and in the case of aspartame politics instead of science was used to get this addictive poison approved, a deadly drug masquerading as an additive and completely illegal. The law in this country states an additive must be inert or non-reactive. It can't be a drug that fills a 1000 page medical text with symptoms and diseases and destroys the central nervous system, immune system, brain and optic nerve and ravages every organ in the body, as aspartame does. Dr. James Bowen told the FDA (letter on labeling on www.dorway.com) aspartame is mass poisoning of the American public and more than 70+ countries of the world - today 100. And so the new movie shows you what a poisoned world looks like. See the suffering of the victims and know every time you tell a consumer that aspartame is safe you are being part of causing this suffering on these people. So what are you going to do? I would start with apologizing to this lady you wrote for giving standard propaganda instead of the truth. What would I do in your place? Armed with documented information that aspartame is a killer I would tell the company remove it or I'm out of here. It takes integrity do this. If you want to continue this job of lying to the public, you'll one day answer to God. "Deliver those being taken away to death and those staggering to the slaughter. O may you hold them back. In case you should say 'Look! We did not know of this' will not He that is making an estimate of the hearts discern it and pay back to earthlin man according to his activity?" Proverbs 24:11 I've been doing this for 13 years as Founder of Mission Possible at my expense, because you see I know. And now you know. I'm not an aspartame victim. I simply don't believe the government and industry has the right to lie to the public and cause sickness and death. As the scripture points out; we must warn. Below I have pasted in an article by Dr. Roberts published in Townsend Letter for Doctors that goes into the dangers of aspartame gum. DO NOT lie again to a consumer. Aspartame is not safe. Read the FDA audit on http://www.dorway.com, the Bressler Report. I personally spoke to Jerome Bressler who wrote it, and thanked him for getting out the truth about this neurotoxin. He told me it was much worse than this report as the FDA removed the 20% that was the most damming. He also told this to Doctors Roberts and Blaylock. Dr. Roberts wrote his congressman to get the report and the FDA refused to give it them. In Congress, Dr. Jacqueline Verrett, FDA toxicologist, said all studies on aspartame were built on a foundation of sand and should be thrown out. FDA toxicologist, Dr. Adrian Gross told Congress that aspartame violated the Delaney Amendment which forbid putting something in food you know will cause cancer, and aspartame without a shadow of a doubt can cause brain tumors and brain cancer. Of course, it also triggered mammary, testicular, ovarian, pancreatic and thyroid tumors. Dr. Gross' last words to Congress were: "And if the FDA violates its own laws who is left to protect the public." We are now taking case histories for seizures and brain tumors triggered by aspartame for class action, especially in New York and New Jersey. And yes, we will get it off the market. Reformulate now! Dr. Betty Martini, Founder, Mission Possible International, 9270 River Club Parkway, Duluth, Georgia 30097 USA 770 242-2599 http://www.wnho.net and http://www.dorway.com 24 page booklets on aspartame, Artificially Sweetened Times, for distribution - contact www.idaho-observer.com Date: Sat, 29 Jan 2005 14:00:55 -0500 THE POTENTIAL HAZARD OF ASPARTAME ABSORPTION FROM WITHIN THE MOUTH By H. J. Roberts, M.D., F.A.C.P., F.C.C.P. E-Mail: HJrobertsmd@aol.com (c)2004 by H. J. Roberts, M.D. Aspartame Posted 28 June 2004 Aspartame disease is being increasingly encountered in medical practice. (1-4) Over two-thirds of the population currently consumes the chemical aspartame, most commonly, as "diet" sodas and "sugar-free" products. I have detailed the serious neurological, psychiatric, metabolic, endocrine allergic and addictive aspects of this affliction. (1-5) The widespread consumption of popular aspartame products that can be absorbed from the mouth and oropharynx should be cause for concern. They include gum, mouthwashes, chewable drugs and vitamins, and rectangular "mouth-freshener" strips placed on the tongue. Sugar-free mints are recommended for low-carbohydrate dieters who experience bad breath. The prompt and predicable recurrence of symptoms (e.g., headache, dizziness, seizures, confusion, visual features, joint pain) on initial exposure or rechallenge to aspartame in this manner has been impressive. These issues are relevant. * Persons tend to chew aspartame gum up to five times longer than regular gum. * The prompt absorption of this neurotoxin from the mouth and oropharynx, with direct transport to the brain by a unique pathway, has clinical confirmation. (see below) * These products can create an intense craving for sweets due to increased insulin secretion. * The potential for addiction, related largely to the methyl alcohol component of aspartame, is significant. Scores of patients experienced severe withdrawal reactions after abrupt cessation. * The response of a previously well woman illustrates this issue. "I suffered a grand mal seizure watching a movie immediately after applying a Listerine Strip. My friend gave me the strip, and it's the last thing I remember. Apparently, I stiffened up, my eyes rolled back in my head, and I bit my tongue and drooled. I regained awareness 1/2 hour later as I was being unloaded from the ambulance. A CAT scan, an MRI, blood work and other tests were all inconclusive." Persons at high risk for aspartame reactions ought to be warned against using these products. They include pregnant women, children and patients with seizures, migraine, diabetes, hypoglycemia and weight disorders. References: * Roberts HJ Reactions attributed to aspartame containing producs: 551 cases. J appl Nutr l988; 40:86-94. * Robert HJ. Aspartame (NutraSweet): Is It Safe? Philadelphia, The Charles Press, l989. * Roberts HJ, Sweet'ner Dearest: Bittersweet Vignettes About Aspartame (NutraSweet) West Palm Beach, Sunshine Sentinel Press, l992. * Robert HJ, Aspartame Disease: An Ignored Epidemic, West Palm Beach, Sunshine Sentinel Press, 2001. * Roberts HJ. Aspartame (NutraSweet) addiction. Townsend Letter for Doctors 2000: 198 (January): 52-57. H. J. Roberts, MD FACP Palm Beach Institute For Medical Research P. O. Box 17799 West Palm Beach, Florida 33416 USA Note from Dr. Betty Martini: Please note we have notified Wrigley for years about the information Dr. Roberts has reported for this published article. Rather than remove aspartame from their gum they have now put this toxin in almost all their gums, and mixed with other unsafe sweeteners like acesulfame potassium (caused cancer and leukemia in original studies) and sucralose or Splenda which has a chlorinated base like DDT and can cause autoimmune disease. ( http://www.wnho.net (click on aspartame) and http://www.dorway.com ). We have also notified Pfizer maker of the Listerine Strips since they came out that consumers were reporting seizures including kids, along with other adverse reactions on the FDA list of 92 symptoms. They won't even answer my emails anymore. Wrigley's and Pfizer have now been sued over poisoning the public with Aspartame. Dr. Roberts books and tapes can be gotten by going to httyp://www.sunsentpress.com or calling 1-800-827-7991. See Dr. Roberts in the new film on aspartame called Sweet Misery: A Poisoned World! Click here for more information - CLICK HERE > > >Return-Path: > >Subject: In Response to your Website Comments - Ref # 000074468A >To: andie_style@yahoo.com.au > >From: bstrang@wrigley.com.au >Date: Thu, 27 Jan 2005 13:09:26 +1000 >Dear Mrs Bouman, > >Thank you for contacting The Wrigley Company. We always appreciate hearing >from our consumers and we are happy to answer any queries you may have. > >Please be assured that The Wrigley Company maintains its high product >quality standards by using only those ingredients that have been approved >by both National and International Food Authorities. These independent >regulatory bodies are established to protect the health and wellbeing of >consumers and all ingredients are extensively tested before approval is >granted. It is based upon this approval that we are confident in the >safety of all ingredients used in our chewing gum products. FSANZ (Food >Standards Australia New Zealand ) is the regulatory body in Australia. > >The Wrigley Company utilises the high intensity sweetener, Aspartame, in a >number of its products - as the primary sweetener in some of our sugarfree >brands and as a flavour enhancer in some of our sugar-sweetened brands. As >an ingredient, Aspartame has the added benefit of providing an especially >long-lasting flavour. > >Thank you for contacting The Wrigley Company. If you have any further >questions, please do not hesitate to contact us. > >Yours sincerely, >THE WRIGLEY COMPANY PTY LIMITED > > > >Bernadette Strang >Consumer Affairs Co-Ordinator > > > >Ref No: 000074468A > -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Anti-Virus. Version: 7.0.300 / Virus Database: 265.7.4 - Release Date: 1/25/2005