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Letter to President Bush from NM State Senator Gerald Ortiz y Pino - Reporting by Stephen Fox

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Letter to President Bush from NM State Senator Gerald Ortiz y Pino

Dear President Bush:

We request that you order FDA Commissioner nominee, Andrew Von Eschenbach M.D., to rescind the FDA approval for the artificial sweetener, Aspartame.

Its approval was forced through the FDA in 1981, and the USA has had 25 years to observe the incontrovertible medical effects from Aspartame, which derive from its being metabolized as methanol and formaldehyde, and two unessential amino acids, one of which, phenylalanine becomes a proven brain tumor causing agent, diketopiperazine.
Aspartame is now found in 6000 USA food products and more than 500 medications.

There is an excellent precedent for this: the fact that Richard Nixon in 1969 ordered that the FDA rescind the approval for another proven carcinogenic artificial sweetener, Cyclamates. The incidence of neurodegenerative diseases in the USA like Multiple Sclerosis and Lou Gehrig’s Disease have increased substantially since 1981. We think that given the evidence that has accrued thus far concerning Aspartame’s harm, its effects as a teratogen, causing birth defects and chromosomal damage; its being the most complained about chemical on the market, according to FDA statistics (FDA stopped taking complaints on Aspartame in 1995); and because of our concern for protecting the health of Americans, as well as the health of the many nations which subsequently approved it for general use as a result of the US FDA approval, we ask that you order Aspartame rescinded by the FDA Commissioner nominee as soon as possible.

As you know, the Institute of Medicine has completed a recent report sharply critical of the FDA regarding the FDA’s inability to ensure the safe and effective use of prescription drugs. Our concerns in this letter are not with drugs, but with the obvious need to overhaul the entire process of the FDA granting approval for food additives in general, which are often forced through the approval process based only on the strength of industry paid for studies. The USA needs an independent objective source of truth in these processes.

You have a chance to do this as President, which is preferable to the United States Senate having to later make rescinding FDA approval for Aspartame and other deleterious and poisonous substances a condition upon which Dr. Von Eschenbach’s nomination approval is contingent. Your concerns should not be with corporate objections and continued allegations that their products are “safe.” Many heads of state internationally will be grateful for your taking the correct action in this regard.

Respectfully, State Senator Gerald Ortiz y Pino (505) 250-1280

Also signed by 10 Members of the New Mexico Legislative Health and Human Services Committee, including:

The Senate Chair, Dede Feldman (also Chair of Senate Public Affairs Committee) the House Chair, Dr. Danice Picraux (also Vice Chair of House Finance and Appropriations Committee) Linda Lopez (Chair of the Senate Rules Committee) Miguel Garcia (Chair, House Labor Resources Committee) Gloria Vaughn, Ray Begaye (Vice Chair, House Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee) Jim Trujillo (Vice Chair, House Energy and Natural Resources Committee) Irvin Harrison(Vice Chair, House Consumer Affairs Committee) Gail Chasey (Chair of the House Consumer Affairs Committee).