The FDA is, in my opinion, the most corrupt of the government agencies for 3 reasons.
I would like you to consider these and inform yourselves of arguments pro and con.
1) The FDA’s cooperation with businesses to the detriment of Americans’ health is dishonorable. Personally, I too am pro-business and love the
Shakespeare wrote in sonnet XCIV: “…The summer’s flower is to the summer sweet though to itself it only live and die, but if that flower with base infection meet, the basest weed outbraves its dignity. For sweetest things turn sourest by their deeds; lilies that fester smell far worse than weeds.”
So, those who have the noblest charge – to care for the trusting and innocent consumer – those who betray that trust for selfish reasons are the most dishonorable.2) The revolving door issue. A cursory study of what happens to FDA officials after they resign or retire or are fired from their government job is shocking. Where do these people land? They land, seven out of ten of them, into the appreciative laps of those very corporations which they had been charged with regulating. It takes very little imagination to guess what how the discussion goes: “Hey FDA guy, take it easy on us during this review process for our new drug application and we’ll have a nice job for you as a consultant when you retire next year…” or MORE COMMONLY, corporations like Monsanto “rent” their scientists to the FDA long enough for them to review and approve their own drugs. Then, back they go to the business sector.
3) The FDA officials do a bad job; they act in poor faith typified by stonewalling and dissembling. For example, they were recently criticized by Republican lawmakers who charged the U.S. Food and Drug Administration with “hindering a congressional probe into whether the agency suppressed a possible link between antidepressant use and suicidal behavior in youth”. Rep. Joe Barton, chairman of the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee, said “the FDA has been uncooperative during the committee’s seven-month inquiry. Unfortunately, over the last several months, the committee has been met mostly with stonewalling, slow-rolling and plain incompetence from the FDA,” said Barton, of
In fairness, the FDA remains under funded and understaffed and does not have the expertise to do its job, so we should not be surprised that problems abound. However, my hope is that they would acknowledge their failure and adopt a far more circumscribed role. I think that the FDA should be an ADVISORY agency and not an ENFORCING agency. They should report: “We, the FDA, think that aspartame (also from Monsanto subsidary, care of then CEO Donald Rumsfield) is not bad for you but, we trust that you intelligent and responsible Americans can, bearing our opinion in mind, do what you please. Or “We think that vitamin E is toxic, but you can do what you want.” This would let more market forces come into play and less regulations would compromise our freedoms.
So, read on about the most recent fiasco. The dissenting, albeit most informed voice, is removed from an advisory panel because he alone is acting responsibly and calling for the removal of a class of drugs whose major side- effect happens to be heart attacks….
And now a personal note to any FDA official reading this empassioned piece: please contact me if I have misrepresented your behavior as I seek the truth and have been disheartened by what I have seen of your behavior.
And now read on from http://www.ethicalinvesting.com/monsanto/aspartame.shtml
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Aspartame (NutraSweet) Formaldehyde Poisoning, Health Destruction, and Lawsuits
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The artificial sweetener aspartame (NutraSweet, Equal, NatraTaste, Canderel) is without question the most toxic and health-destroying “food” sold to consumers. The number of people who have recognized toxicity reactions or damage from chronic aspartame ingestion is well over one million people in the
“These are indeed extremely high levels for adducts of formaldehyde, a substance responsible for chronic deleterious effects that has also been considered carcinogenic.
….
“It is concluded that aspartame consumption may constitute a hazard because of its contribution to the formation of formaldehyde adducts.”
[Life Sci. (scientific journal), Vol. 63, No. 5, pp. 337+, 1998]
It can be difficult to get a sense of the widespread harm that this toxic product has caused without printing out and reading completely through the Aspartame Toxicity Reaction Samples that are available on the Aspartame (NutraSweet) Toxicity Information Center web page. This document will take a minute or two to load in web browser so please be patient.
“I know from my own experience, the levels of devastation this product are real. I have lesions on the left temporal lobe of my brain and a series of seizures to prove it. …. “I drank diet coke for YEARS…. loved the stuff.. and ‘tho everyone told me (vaguely) that Aspartame was bad for me.. did I listen?? Noooooo. Annnnd I paid the price.”
Some people may ask, “Well, didn’t the research prove that it is safe?” The answer is “No!”. Nearly 100% of the independent scientific research has found problems with aspartame. Those independent research studies are cited and discussed in detail on the Aspartame Frequently Asked Questions web page and on several other web pages on the Internet. Researchers and physicians are encouraged to followup on these studies.
Primarily, the only research that claims aspartame is safe is that which has been funded and/or controlled by the manufacturer (e.g., Monsanto). They put together convincing-sounding summaries of poorly-designed research in order to present to the public. When the research is examined closely it is found that the testing was often done improperly, the results were often reported inaccurately or in a biased way, and the equivalent of extremely low doses of aspartame was often used even though the summaries reported the use of high doses.
“Corporate control of NutraSweet testing continues at Monsanto, torturing the ethics of academic medicine.”
[Prevailing Winds, Issue 1, 1995]
Sometimes, the manufacturer points to the fact that aspartame has been approved in many countries. But none of these countries even tested aspartame. They relied on the manufacturer’s pre-approved “research” which was aptly described by an FDA Investigator:
“They [manufacturer] lied and they didn’t submit the real nature of their observations because had they done that it is more than likely that a great number of these studies would have been rejected simply for adequacy. What [the manufacturer] did, they took great pains to camouflage these shortcomings of the study. As I say filter and just present to the FDA what they wished the FDA to know and they did other terrible things for instance animals would develop tumors while they were under study. Well they would remove these tumors from the animals.”
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Some of the symptoms of aspartame poisong include:
Headaches/Migraines, Dizziness, Seizures, Nausea, Numbness, Muscle spasms, Weight gain, Rashes, Depression, Fatigue, Irritability, Tachycardia, Insomnia, Vision Problems, Hearing Loss, Heart palpitations, Breathing difficulties, Anxiety attacks, Slurred Speech, Loss of taste, Tinnitus, Vertigo, Memory loss, Joint Pain
Because aspartame metabolizes into a poison and other dangerous chemicals (despite the claims of the manufacturer to the contrary), it is believed that it can trigger or worsen the following conditions:
Brain tumors, Arthritis, Multiple sclerosis, Epilepsy, Chronic faigue syndrome, Parkinson’s Disease, Alzheimer’s Disease, Mental retardation, Lymphoma, Birth defects, Fibromyalgia, Diabetes, Thyroid Disorders
Monsanto is now preparing to release another poorly-tested, dangerous sweetener, neotame. However, a large number of people are not waiting to be poisoned again and are using the Healthier Sweetener Resource List to switch to stevia and other healthier, time-tested sweeteners.
Monsanto sold its aspartame business recently to Ajinomoto of Japan and a group made up of former Monsanto executives and Michael Dell’s (of Dell Computer) consulting / investment firm. A class action lawsuit is being prepared and should be filed against the current and previous manufacturers in late 2002. The lawsuits against Monsanto for aspartame poisoning and their other toxic products will likely force a reorganization or put it out of business within a few years.
Other resources for aspartame/neotame information on the Internet:
Dorway To Discovery
Aspartame=Death Web Page (Mission Possible Radio)
Neotame Toxicity Information Center
NutraMancer City (Explore the city’s hospital!)
More Resources & Links!