A few days ago respected environmental campaigner and organic grower, Robert Baehr, shared some of his views with us, on the use of additives in our food. Since then a number of readers have commented upon one such additive - a “sweetener” widely marketed under the name of Aspartame.

For the benefit of our readership, we draw your attention to an article that begins:

“Today we have “Nutra-Sweet”, which is widely used in a plethora of consumables, despite a demonstrated neurological reaction in some people. In February 1996, it was decided to also use the product name “Benevia”. It is estimated that as many as 20,000,000 people cannot metabolize phenylalimine, and this inability is genetically inherited by children. The inability to metabolize phenylalinine can lead to mental retardation in children. This means a risk of retardation for millions of children. A multi-billion dollar enterprise, this substance is said to be “refined” from “natural” substances. Like other “refined” substances, it represents a health threat to the general public. No long term studies have been performed to evaluate the physiological effects of this substance, yet the public is lead to believe it is absolutely safe. Technically, the chemical is called aspartame, and it was once on a Pentagon list of biowarfare chemicals submitted to Congress. [1] Aspartame is in over 4,000 products worldwide and is consumed by over 200 million people in the United States alone. What follows is a skeletal examination of the chronology related to aspartame. A more detailed chronology is given later in this chapter based on information provided to us by the Aspartame Consumer Safety Network.

Approval was followed by a retraction based on demonstrated public concern over the fact that the substance produced brain tumors in rats. According to the 1974 FDA task force set up to examine aspartame and G.D.Searle, “we have uncovered serious deficiencies in Searles operations and practices, which undermine the basis for reliance on Searle’s integrity in conducting high quality animal research to accurately determine the toxic potential of its products.” The task force report concluded with the recommendation that G.D. Searle should face a Grand Jury “to identify more particularly the nature of the violations, and to identify all those responsible.” [2]

The remainder of this article may be found here .

A further point of interest within the article is mention of the American bio-tech giant Monsanto �“ a company that came to notoriety through its manufacturing of a “safe” dioxine herbicide know as “Agent Orange” �“ used as a tree defoliant by the US military in Vietnam and subsequently responsible for genetic defects and cancer amongst hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese, pareticularly newborn babes. More recently Monsanto has been seen promoting its GM products in both Britain and Europe �“ products it, of course, claims to be “safe”!

In researching a suitable image to accompany this story we have come across several too appalling to publish on a site catering for family viewing �“ please take our word for it that the image above, alleged to show a five-year old victim of “Agent Orange”, is mild in comparison!