NATURAL NEWS– Consumer rights advocacy group Mission Possible is leading a campaign to fill a product liability lawsuit with New York and New Jersey residents whose brain tumors may be linked to the consumption of the artificial sweetener aspartame (NutraSweet/Equal/Spoonful, etc.).

“Neither congressional hearings or repeated petitions calling for a ban have stopped aspartame manufacturers from exposing the public to this sweet poison. In fact, aspartame producers are reporting increased sales and boasting the marketplace addition of ‘neotame,’ a new aspartame product,” explained Mission Possible International Founder Betty Martini.

For 16 years, the FDA resisted pressure to approve aspartame due to safety studies linking the artificial sweetener to numerous adverse reactions, including the development of brain tumors in animal studies. In 1977, FDA investigator Jerome Bressler released a report describing how, in clinical studies submitted to the FDA, Searle removed aspartame-induced brain tumors that developed in lab rats and placed them back into the study. If the rats died, Bressler reported, Searle would resurrect them on paper.

In a personal conversation with Martini and prominent aspartame experts, Doctors H. J. Roberts and Russell Blaylock he admitted the studies were so bad FDA removed 20% of the most damaging data of his report.

Continue reading about FDA Studies Show Aspartame Link to Brain Tumors.

© Natural News, 2005

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PSYCHOLOGY TODAY– A new book titled Do fish feel pain? by the renowned scientist, Victoria Braitheaite, is a very important read for those interested in the general topic of pain in animals, especially because it has been long assumed that fish are not sentient beings and are not all that intelligent.

A few years ago I reviewed the literature about sentience in fish and other animals who live beneath the surface (see also) and it’s clear that a strong case can be made for protecting fish and other aquatic animals from harm. Professor Braithwaite’s book contains an incredible amount of recent scientific data that support this idea. 

Many people will likely not take or have the time to read her book, so let me tell you what she says at the beginning of her chapter titled “Looking to the future.” She writes: “I have argued that there is as much evidence that fish feel pain and suffer as there is for birds and mammals — and more than there is for human neonates and preterm babies.” (page 153).

Professor Braithwaite then goes on to note that these data will require us to change the ways in which we interact with fish because we now know that they suffer and feel pain. 

Continue reading about Fish Feel Pain, Science Tells Us.

© Psychology Today, 2010

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BBC– Aspartame is 200 times sweeter than sugar and is used throughout the world in low-calorie drinks and foods. Regulators say existing studies show it is safe, but will look at the European Journal of Clinical Oncology study.

But they said it was unlikely that the sweetener was harmful to humans to the same extent as in rats. Concerns have been raised about the aspartame in the past, but an analysis of 500 papers by UK regulators in 2002 concluded there was no threat to consumers.

The Food Standards Agency said: “The European Food Safety Authority intends to undertake an urgent assessment of this study to establish whether there are any implications for human health.

“We will study EFSA’s opinion carefully and consider what, if any, action may be required.”

Dr Elaine Vickers, cancer information officer at Cancer Research UK, said: “If a risk to humans does exist, it will almost certainly be very small.

“However, we welcome the news that the EFSA will undertake an urgent assessment of this work.”

Continue reading about Sweetener Linked to Leukemias. 

© BBC, 2005

Photo by flickr user Lee Coursey

WASHINGTON POST– Almost half of tested samples of commercial high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) contained mercury, which was also found in nearly a third of 55 popular brand-name food and beverage products where HFCS is the first- or second-highest labeled ingredient, according to two new U.S. studies.

HFCS has replaced sugar as the sweetener in many beverages and foods such as breads, cereals, breakfast bars, lunch meats, yogurts, soups and condiments. On average, Americans consume about 12 teaspoons per day of HFCS, but teens and other high consumers can take in 80 percent more HFCS than average.

“Mercury is toxic in all its forms. Given how much high-fructose corn syrup is consumed by children, it could be a significant additional source of mercury never before considered. We are calling for immediate changes by industry and the [U.S. Food and Drug Administration] to help stop this avoidable mercury contamination of the food supply,” the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy’s Dr. David Wallinga, a co-author of both studies, said in a prepared statement.

In the first study, published in current issue of Environmental Health, researchers found detectable levels of mercury in nine of 20 samples of commercial HFCS.

Continue reading about Study Finds HIgh-Fructose Corn Syrup Contains Mercury.

© Washington Post, 2009

Photo by flickr user theakshay

More information

The U.S. Agency for Toxic Substances & Disease Registry has more about mercury and health.

INDEPENDENT– When is it right for a government to mass-medicate the public? It’s hard to imagine a scenario. If we faced the spread of a new and lethal plague, most people would probably accept draconian intervention. But it would have to be serious.

Today, however, we’re told by the Government’s Alan Johnson that he intends to pursue a policy of mass medication of the British public. Not to prevent smallpox or the bubonic plague, but to tackle tooth decay. Well, tooth decay is bad news, but it’s hardly the stuff of nightmares. However, fluoride, the medicine he’s chosen, may well be.

We don’t know if fluoride works. In the United States, where 65 per cent of people are routinely subjected to the chemical, the worst tooth decay occurs in poor neighbourhoods of the largest cities, the vast majority of which have been fluoridated for decades. When fluoridation was halted in parts of Finland, East Germany, Cuba and Canada, tooth decay actually decreased.

One of the reasons for this is that fluoride is believed to work best when applied directly, for example to the tooth. Drinking fluoride to prevent cavities is like swallowing bandages to cure a broken arm. Another reason is that a policy of mass medication through the water supply assumes that we are all the same age, size and weight, and therefore require the same dose.

What we do know is that fluoride is toxic – so toxic, in fact, that in 1984, the makers of Colgate, Procter & Gamble, reportedly admitted that a small tube of their toothpaste “theoretically at least contains enough fluoride to kill a small child”.

Continue reading about Is Fluoride Safe?.

© The Independent, 2008

Photo by flickr user Minimalist Photography