LETTER TO THE HONORABLE PETE HODGSON - YOUR CORRESPONDENCE ASPARTAME/NEOTAME NEW ZEALAND (FURTHER ON YOUR NOTE REFERRING INFO ON ASPARTAME TO ANNETTE KING)


Dr. Betty Martini
Mission Possible World Health International
9270 River Club Parkway
Duluth, Georgia 30097
Telephone: 770-242-2599
E-Mail: BettyM19@mindspring.com



Posted: 16 August 2007


You may see the first letter sent to the Honorable Pete Hodgson and his reply at: http://www/mpwhi.com/letter_to_honorable_pete_hodgson.htm


From: Dr. Betty Martini, D.Hum., Bettym19@mindspring.com
To: phodgson@ministers.govt.nz
Date: Wed, Aug 15, 2007 1:21 pm

Subject: Re: Your correspondence Aspartame/Neotame New Zealand (further on your note referring info on aspartame to Annette King)


To Honorable Pete Hodgson:

Please note as I said in the previous correspondence we have been trying to get Annette King to do something for years. When it comes to food safety she is clearly not interested in protecting the people of New Zealand. A great deal of correspondence has gone to her from not only my organization but credentialed physicians and even victims. She ignores them all.

You can see from the Report For Schools from the experts on this issue including even Feingold, the ADD people who banned aspartame in their diets, aspartame can destroy the brains of children and even future generations. http://www.wnho.net/report_on_aspartame_and_children.htm This is not something you can let Annette King be responsible for because she has made it clear in the past she has no interest.

I came to New Zealand for almost 3 weeks to help Abby Cormack and the people of New Zealand. The New Zealand Food Safety Authority were offered a meeting an copy of documents. They refused to meet with me and then put out a press release saying .. "But holding meetings and giving talks, as these activists are doing, cannot be classed as robust, sound science." They refused the sound science and at lectures the "robust sound science" was used to show the FDA has known all along that aspartame is a deadly addictive, excitoneurotoxic carcinogenic drug. They were even read the congressional record where the FDA admitted it causes cancer. More new studies were discussed that continue to show the toxicity of aspartame.

When the government turns its back on the people, somebody has to help them. As consumers in New Zealand got off aspartame their symptoms and problems disappeared. If Annette King had done something years ago Abby Cormack wouldn't have almost died. Why would doctors set up Aspartame Detoxification Clinics if we weren't dealing with a global epidemic.

Respectfully,

Dr. Betty Martini
Founder, Mission Possible World Health International
9270 River Club Parkway
Duluth, Georgia 30097
770-242-2599
E-Mail: BettyM19@mindspring.com
http://www.wpwhi.com
http://www.whno.net
http://www.dorway.com

Aspartame Toxiocity Center: http://www.holisticmed.com/aspartame


From: Dr. Betty Martini, D.Hum., Bettym19@mindspring.com
To: "Sonia Scott" Sonia.Scott@parliament.govt.nz
Date: Wed, 21 Aug 2002 02:15:55 -0400
Subject: Re: Your correspondence Aspartame/Neotame New Zealand


Dear Mrs. King:

As far as ANZFA being concerned with food safety, consider:

For years victims of aspartame have written and complained of reactions to aspartame without a reply of concern from ANZFA. Someone concerned with food safety investigates and doesn't simply adhere to statements from industry defending their product.

Letters from physicians about the issue have gone unanswered. A government agency concerned with food safety would have investigated and answered the correspondence with concern for the consumer.

When victims do get a response it has simply been to repeat industry's defense of its product.

In the July/Sept, 1997 issue of Soil and Health, Editor Chris Wheeler wrote an excellent expose of ANZFA. He said: "Publicly-funded regulatory bodies like our Ministry of Health have always been easy targets for what has been called "industry capture".

"Industry Capture" is the process by which a supposedly objective public interest group established to protect taxpayer interests becomes subverted instead to the interests of big business and powerful industrial cartels.

"In the files of Soil & Health are examples going back for decades of public bodies like the Ministry of Health acting directly against the interests of the taxpayer (who funds the Ministry) to defend the interests of the chemical and food industries.

"We have substantial documentation for example, of the way the Health Ministry (formerly Dept of Health) has defended the interests of 2, 4-D/2,4,5-T manufacturers Dow-Elanco against the public health interest even when substantial evidence of health problem exists regarding use of these pesticides in New Zealand.

"Now it is clear the Health Ministry is continuing this pattern by failing to check the substantial independent data on aspartame hazard from expert medical scientists such as Drs Olney and Roberts and instead prefers the shonky, fiddled data from Monsanto/NutraSweet rubberstamped by corrupted and/or pressured political/industry appointees to the US Food & Drug Administration (FDA).

"The letter that follows from Dr. Gillian Durham, Director of Public Health & General Manager, Public Health Group, in answer to a letter of enquiry from the Association's Margaret Jones regarding the brain cancer link to aspartame use, makes it clear that Ministry officials are totally failing in their duty to review the data that has already been presented in two issues of Soil & Health (Dec/Feb 97 & May/June 97 issues) and published in the independent scientific press for the past two decades.

"Dear Mrs. Jones Thank you for your letter of 30 June 1997 about the artificial sweetener aspartame.

The Ministry of Health is aware of the claim that there has been an increased incidence in the number of persons with brain tumours in the US associated with the marketing of aspartame. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) reports that analysis of cancer incidence in the US does not support an association between the use of aspartame and an increased incidence of brain cancer.

"Any adverse effects from the consumption of aspartame would likely be identified in the US before New Zealand, as aspartame has been used for a longer period of time in the US and is in a wider range of foods than is permitted in New Zealand. I note that the USFDA has not made any recommendations to restrict the use of aspartame based on the recent claims.

"The Ministry does not propose to advise any change in the consumption, or present permission, to use aspartame ...

"As a result of an agreement between the Australian and New Zealand Governments, a joint food standards setting system was established in July 1996. I understand that the food standard for food additives, including artificial sweeteners, is currently under review and the Australia New Zealand Food Authority (ANZFA) issued a draft standard for comment in March 1997. The ANZFA develops new food standards for both Australia and New Zealand. Part of the development process of a new food standard is public consultation on the proposal. When the ANZFA has prepared a discussion document, it is released for public comment. The public are notified through advertisements in the main newspapers. You can obtain a copy of any ANZFA consultation paper by contacting the ANZFA directly at PO Box 10-559, The Terrace, Wellington.

"The Ministry does not propose to advise any change in the consumption, or present permission, to use aspartame, although it is continuing to keep a watching brief on international developments on artificial sweeteners.

Yours sincerely,

Dr. Gillian Durham, Director of Public Health and General Manager,
Public Health Group

_____

Mrs. King, I'm stopping the article at this point because the issue above was about aspartame and brain tumors. ANZFA, of course, just rubberstamps what the FDA lies about. But what did the FDA really say about the brain tumor issue? It was the late Dr. Adrian Gross who was the FDA toxicologist at the time of industry's studies. And he spoke out against aspartame in the 8/1/1985 Congressional Record. Gross, who took part in on-site investigations at Searle laboratories said the studies carried out by Searle to show the safety of aspartame were "to a large extent unreliable." He said "at least one of those studies has established beyond any reasonable doubt that aspartame is capable of inducing brain tumors in experimental animals and that this ... is of extremely high significance. "

Gross also testified that because aspartame was capable of producing brain tumors and brain cancer, FDA should not have been able to set an allowable daily intake of the substance at any level.

He said at least one of Searle's studies "has established beyond any reasonable doubt that aspartame is capable of inducing brain tumors in experimental animals and that this predisposition of it is of extremely high significance ....In view of these indications that the cancer causing potential of aspartame is a matter that had been established way beyond any reasonable doubt, one can ask: What is the reason for the apparent refusal by the FDA to invoke for this food additive the so-called Delaney Amendment to the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act?"

The Delaney Amendment makes it illegal to allow any residues of cancer causing chemicals in foods. In his concluding testimony Gross asked, "Give the (cancer causing potential of aspartame) how would the FDA justify its position that it views a certain amount of aspartame as constituting an allowable daily intake or 'safe' level of it? Is that position in effect not equivalent to setting a 'tolerance' for this food additive and thus a violation of that law? And if the FDA itself elects to violate the law, who is left to protect the health of the public?" (Congressional Record SID835:131 (August 1, l985).

So who are you going to believe, Mrs. King, the FDA toxicologist who was right there on site and did his homework or the FDA who violated the law in the approval of this neurotoxic drug that breaks down to diketopiperazine, the brain tumor agent that gave lab animals brain tumors and now giving humans brain tumors? And how much research did ANZFA do? None! They just accepted what the FDA said and the FDA is just covering is itself because it violated the law, when Dr. Arthur Hull Hayes over-ruled the Board of Inquiry who said not to approve it because of the brain tumor issue and the fact it had never been proven safe.

While I know this article is from l997 and Monsanto has sold NutraSweet, lets go on with parts of the article.

..."Earlier issues of Soil & Health (Dec/Feb 97 and May/June 97) have detailed some of the shonky and directly dishonest research practices used by both Searle and Monsanto to get continued approval for the public release of aspartame from the FDA and the various regulatory bodies in the USA used to vet new chemicals for their safety.

"It's this vicious circle of Catch 22 situations, where long standing corrupt practices of falsifying research inside the chemical industry almost guarantee that chemical industry products will be untested and unsafe, that make Ministry of Health and ANZFA claims of aspartame safety an obscene parody of the actual truth.

"Arguably, the process of official approval of aspartame by the FDA, etc has been dogged by so much dishonesty, malpractice and corruption connived in - if not directed - by Monsanto and its various agents, that aspartame/NutraSweet/Equal will undoubtedly prove in the end to be a veritable Coleridgian albatross around the collective necks of both our Ministry of Health and ANZFA.

"We can't, of course, reproduce all the evidence against aspartame and Monsanto in these pages. Books have been written and are still being written about the product and the corruption and disease surrounding it. The scientific papers alone would take up several full issues of Soil & Health in describing just the bare bibliographic details alone.

"Suffice it to say that aspartame will probably prove to be one of the most well-documented dietary disasters - albeit, the most well-defended and approved by public health officials who most certainly should have known better - of this century.

"What follows is one more item of evidence from the huge file we and Mission Possible in the USA are collecting for the eventual indictment against aspartame/NutraSweet, its manufacturers and the regulatory authorities who with such catastrophic neglect allowed the product onto the world market.

"What it shows is that G. D. Searle, in a cynical re-creation of the research carried out by the notorious Dr. Mengele at Auschwitz concentration camp on human subjects, used unwitting members of Third World populations in Latin America to test aspartame toxicity on, gulling their experiment subjects into co-operation by telling them the chemical was a natural product extracted from the papaya fruit.

"Statement by Norma A. Vera sworn before a Notary Public of the State of Florida, County of Dade, May 8, l997.

"During 1984 I had a Medical Secretarial Office. In order to supplement my income and acquire new business contacts I was working temporary placements for Advantage Personnel Services located at that time at 7861 Bird Road, Miami, Florida 33155 with telephone 305-261-4561.

"That same year I was placed for at least four months at the offices of G. D. Searle International at approximately 2500-2700 Douglas Road (SW 37th Avenue) in Coral Gables. After a couple of weeks doing general secretarial work I was asked to assist a Dr. Ortega with some urological translations that needed to be reviewed. We (Dr. Ortega and I) worked together correcting these translations for awhile. When these were completed, he told me they were expecting another set of translations and he wanted me to assist with these as well.

"I recall we waited for a few weeks because the translations were coming from Argentina and Mexico. When the aspartame translations arrived, Dr. Ortega and I worked constantly for hours in his office trying to make sense of what had been translated. He finally decided to send for the final "double blind" studies and translate them directly from the Spanish originals. To my best recollection, these studies had been conducted in depressed sections of Mexico, Argentina and a third country which I believe to have been Guatemala.

"I clearly remember the three groups were a combination of male and female subjects and the majority were young people. We only had the numbers, no names. They were intermittent numbers with no history or information next to thing.

"Although, the majority had complete histories and information, I seem to recall that these subjects as well as all of us in the Searle offices were in the belief that the substance aspartame was a derivative of the papaya fruit. It was believed to be a naturally occurring safe, sweetener extracted from the papaya fruit ....

"There are only a few instances that have remained in my mind as clear and painful as the first time I translated those studies and are as follows:

  1. A young pregnant woman after a number of weeks in the study began to bleed profusely, married and was taken out of the study.

  2. A young man who had seizures resembling grand mal. He had never had seizures before was also taken out of the study.

  3. Another young man had been taken out of the study because he had been involved in some type of fight where he had been stabbed to death.

  4. The recurring description of tumors, astrocytomas and gliomas (brain cancer -ED).

  5. Seizures very similar to both grand mal and petit mal but yet they were never described as epilepsy.

    >

  6. Headaches, migraine-like.

  7. Tremors in the muscles.

  8. Vertigo, disorientation, loss of balance, loss of memory. They were linked with some type of CNS involvement. I don't clearly recall what it was but my description of it, since then, has always been that it makes the brain cells like mush.

"Betty (Statement was directed to Betty Martini of Mission Possible, USA, the anti-aspartame group fighting the issue in North America), the above are the awful memories and recollections I have had to live with since I translated those studies on aspartame in l984. Since then, I have warned family and friends of the dangers of using aspartame; some believed me and some did not. For the longest time I thought I was the only person in the world with this burden. Your persistence has brought me out in the open; there is only the most respectful gratefulness from me to you. I still carry much more of this information in my subconscious mind, but I will remember the names of the villages and the departments who conducted these studies. Norma A. Vera"

_______

Mrs. King, this is most of the article. You obviously see the point. We do our homework and you don't. Today, several years later, the pages of the new medical text on the global plague, Aspartame Disease: An Ignored Epidemic by H. J. Roberts, M.D., http://www.aspartameispoison.com or http://www.sunsentpress.com are filled with the horrors the public are experiencing all over the world from aspartame. And what are they? Why the very same things that those studies showed - brain tumors, seizures, tremors, vertigo, CNS involvement, disorientation, memory loss, miscarriage, brain cell death, and much more including drug interaction and sudden death. You see, the modus operandi of industry is not to publish the truth but instead defend its product regardless of how many people have to die.

Searle, the original manufacturer of aspartame knew from the beginning that the public was going to come down with brain tumors. In their secret trade information which was released during congressional hearings they said: "With the spoon-for-spoon, we have no way of estimating maximum likely abuse and hence need to utilize data based on almost complete conversion to DKP. If we include this use in the original FAP, we stand a good chance of ending up with nothing in the short run and nothing in the long run whereas the other approach would give us something in the short run and, quite likely as much as we could ever get in the long run." ...

Mrs. King, DKP is the brain tumor agent and what they are saying is if they tell the FDA they won't approve it.

They also said: "At this meeting (with FDA officials), the basic philosophy of our approach to food and drugs should be to try to get them to say "yes," to rank the things that we are going to ask for so we are putting first those questions we would like to get a "yes" to, even if we have to throw some in that have no significance to us, other than putting them in a yes saying habit."

This, Mrs. King is called psychomanipulation. You don't have to do this when your product is safe!

Today we are taking case histories for class action and they include such things as brain tumors, seizures, eye deterioration and blindness. I told you everything is a matter of public record but you have to read those records. You didn't do it or you would not have written me such a letter. Obviously if aspartame has never been proven safe just as the FDA's own Board of Inquiry said, then Neotame, a more potent version can't even be considered.

ANZFA or the Food Standards Australia New Zealand has never done anything but use the FDA's propaganda and show it support for industry. The FDA originally did try to have Searle indicted and refused to approve aspartame, but once Dr. Hayes over-ruled their Board they have lied and denied covering up the malfeasance of violating the law in approving a deadly chemical poison for human consumption. On May 17, 2001 Reuters released this story: "The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, guarding the health of 274 million Americans, is compromised by funding from the drugs industry and pressure from Congress, the editor of a top British medical journal said Friday." That was Ed Horton of the prestigious Lancet and he said further: "It is an impossible conflict for safety issues to be overseen by a center that receives funding from industry to review and approve new drugs." And this is who ANZFA relies on for accuracy, and you rely on ANZFA.

What homework did you do, Mrs. King? Did you read the Board of Inquiry of the best scientists the FDA had at the time who said aspartame was not safe and triggered brain tumors? Did you read the 146 page damning investigation by the Centers for Disease Control who said more neurological studies need to be done? Did you read the Bressler Report, FDA audit of the shenanigans and dishonesty of the manufacturer? Did you read Dr. Ralph Walton's report on funding of peer reviewed scientific studies on aspartame showing 92% of unbiased, independent studies on aspartame showed problems? Did you read the 8 month investigation by United Press International even showing doctors being threatened for wanting to do studies on aspartame? Did you read Dr. Olney's statement to the Board of Inquiry? Did you read the protest of the National Soft Drink Association about how dangerous aspartame is and how it breaks down at 86 degrees? Did you read even one government document I referred you to?

Did you at least order the medical text on the global plague of Aspartame Disease or check out the Aspartame Toxicity Center? Did you even check out http://www.dorway.com ? Did you do anything except accept what ANZFA told you? And you have the audacity to tell me that my statement about ANZFA being concerned about food safety laughable, is unfounded? Unfounded based on what? After all these years writing to ANZFA and seeing absolutely no concern for the health of the people of Australia and New Zealand I think its an understatement. In fact, its more than laughable - its very sad for the people of your country.

What you've done is try to get rid of the issue by brushing it off. To paraphrase a comment from Chris Wheeler in Soil and Health about the aspartame issue, I ask you, what do you intend to do about this scar on the heart of New Zealand? Corporate lying and deceit can only succeed when a nation thinks morality is someone else's problem.

Had you written me and said you had actually reviewed the government records I had referred you to, I would have more respect for you. And even if you had come back and said you had brought the issue out and the ministers wanted to support industry rather than the people, I would have given you credit for trying to help.

Former FDA Commissioner Herbert L. Ley, Jr. once said: "I am not going to tell you that the FDA has devised the perfect system for keeping hazardous chemicals out of our foods.. You'll simply have to live with it." The people, Mrs. King, don't want to live wit hazardous chemicals and we have the right to demand that government stop selling out to industry. Henry Clay (1777-1852) said: "Government is a trust, and the offices of the government are trustees; and both the trust and the trustees are created for the benefit of the people."

As Dr. Roberts said in the medical text, "Unfortunately, regulatory bodies frequently become easy targets for "industry capture" - that is, the interests of citizens become subverted to those of big business. "

If I had been in your shoes as Minister of Food Safety, I would have done my homework and I would have copied all those documents about the original fraud that I referred you to with regard to aspartame. And as I addressed Parliament, I would have quoted the words of Dr. Paul B. Dunbar, former FDA Commissioner back in 1950 when the FDA was more intact. He said:

"No new chemical or no chemical that is subject to any question as to safety should be employed until its possible injurious effect, both on an acute and on a long-time chronic basis, has been shown to be nonexistent. In other words, any chemical that is proposed for use ought to be proved in advance of distribution in a food product to be utterly and completely without the possibility of human injury."

Then I would have said: "These documents show extensive fraud and 20 years on the market has shown aspartame disease to be declared a global plague with its own medical text, as well as many other books by more physicians on the subject of its dangers. Inasmuch as there are operations all over the world warning consumers, a Citizens Petition has been written in the US for ban, the European Union is investigating and case histories are being taken for class action, it behooves us to start an indepth investigation immediately with the health of the people of Australia and New Zealand paramount. Furthermore, with these extensive records and even aspartame detoxification centers rising up, we know aspartame has serious problems and dangers. Therefore, how can we allow an analog Neotame to be approved which has no long term studies and since its based on aspartame know ahead of time to expect problems? For the sake of the people of this nation we should act immediately. There is nothing more important than the health and welfare of the people."

Mrs. King, this is the type of action your position behooves you to take. I'm interested in what you have to say when you have something to say. Until that time, I challenge you to prove me wrong. I challenge you to look at independent unbiased studies instead of industry misinformation. As Dr. Roberts said in his text: "The issue of aspartame's safety ought not be whitewashed by reassuring pronouncements, pseudoscientific arguments based on limited or flawed double-blind tests from corporate-sponsored researchers, disinformation rebuttals to valid "anecdotal" reports or media campaigns waged by vested interests." Senator Howard Metzenbaum told Congress on Nov 3, l987: "We don't need the company, or non-profit institutes fronting for the company, telling us this product is safe."

If you care about the health of the people of New Zealand do something to help them in this issue. If you don't, just send me another excuse.

Respectfully,

Dr. Betty Martini
Founder, Mission Possible World Health International
9270 River Club Parkway
Duluth, Georgia 30097
770-242-2599
E-Mail: BettyM19@mindspring.com
http://www.wpwhi.com
http://www.whno.net
http://www.dorway.com

Aspartame Toxiocity Center: http://www.holisticmed.com/aspartame


At 10:43 AM 8/21/2002 +1200, Sonia Scott wrote:

Dear Ms Martini

Thank you for your email of 16 July 2002 to the Hon Annette King. Below is an electronic copy of the Minister's reply. Unfortunately, I am unable to post the letter to you as I don't have your postal address. However, if you would like to receive the original signed letter, please email me your postal address and I will send it to you.

Yours sincerely

Sonia Scott


Dear Betty Martini

Thank you for your letter dated 16 July 2002 about aspartame and neotame.

I note that the Australia New Zealand Food Authority (ANZFA) ? now Food Standards Australia New Zealand - has very recently assessed neotame and that it has been assessed as safe for human consumption. I also note that, as part of its assessment process, ANZFA received a number of submissions that were similar to the information you have sent me. I am satisfied, on the evidence before me, that ANZFA has assessed the safety of neotame in a competent manner.

Furthermore, I consider the view that the commitment of the Australia New Zealand Food Authority (now Food Standards Australia New Zealand) to ensuring food is safe is "laughable", to be unfounded.

Thank you for writing.

Yours sincerely

Hon Annette King
Minister for Food Safety

Sonia Scott
Private Secretary/Adviser (Health)
Office of Hon Annette King
Tel no: 471-9660
Fax no: 495-8445
Mobile: 025-679-1970