President George Walker Bush
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, D.C. 20500
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 is neurotoxic, lowering the seizure threshold and depleting serotonin and
the other, aspartic acid, is an excitotoxin. The molecule breaks down to 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 incidents
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 U.S.
FDA approval, we ask that you order Aspartame rescinded by the FDA Commissioner nominee as soon as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 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,
Gerald Ortiz y Pino
Member of the New Mexico Legislative
Health and Human Services Committee