WOOHOO!!! About TIME!

[unixronin]

Thank enochsmiles for finding this one.  Last month, a class-action RICO suit was filed against NutraSweet Co., American Diabetes Association, Monsanto & Dr Robert H. Moser in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, for "manufacturing and marketing a deadly neurotoxin unfit for human consumption, while they assured the pubic that aspartame (also known as NutraSweet/Equal) contaminated products are safe and healthful, even for children and pregnant women."  The suit asks for $350 million in damages, and alleges massive collusion and obstruction of justice on the part of FDA and Justice Department officials:

For 16 years, the FDA denied approval of aspartame because of compelling evidence of its contributing to brain tumors and other serious disabilities.  Donald Rumsfeld, present Secretary of Defense in the Bush Administration, left President Ford's administration as Chief of Staff to become the CEO of aspartame producer G D Searle Co. in 1981.  Shortly after, Rumsfeld became the CEO, and the day after President Reagan took office, aspartame was quickly approved by FDA Commissioner Arthur Hayes over the objections of the FDA's Public Board of Inquiry.  Hayes had been recently appointed by the Reagan Administration.  Shortly after aspartame's approval by the FDA, Hayes joined NutraSweet's public relations firm under a ten year contract at $1,000 a day.

Aspartame/NutraSweet was the product of the G. D. Searle Co.  In January 1977, the FDA wrote a 33 page letter to U.S. Justice Department Attorney Sam Skinner: "We request that your office convene a Grand Jury investigation into apparent violations of the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act."  Skinner allowed the Statute of Limitations to run.

(Emphasis mine.  Rumsfeld's name apparently appears prominently throughout the suit.  And yeah, you read that right, Nutrasweet gave Arthur Hayes a $3.65 million "thank you" for approving aspartame.)

For those who do not know, aspartame has been banned in Germany for years based upon findings that under certain conditions of blood level and elevated temperature, it causes progressive brain damage in genetically susceptible persons.  The blood levels and temperatures in question are not inconsistent with a small child drinking several aspartame-sweetened sodas on a hot summer day.

See the lawsuit as filed here, or a video of Donald Rumsfeld being interviewed regarding the suit here.  (I haven't seen it; our connection is orders of magnitude too slow to make online video even approximately a realistic possibility.)

Comments

[ehintz.livejournal.com]

Wouldn't that be 3.65 mil rather than 36.5? 1k/day * 365 days == 365k. 365k * 10 ==3,650,000. Still a rather nice thank you to be sure, and still plenty shady... I just noticed the figures didn't gel in me wee head. I guess there's a couple of leap years in there too, but you get the idea...

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Oops .... my error. Slipped the decimal place somehow. Thanks for pointing out the error; I've now corrected it.

[ehintz.livejournal.com]

Not as if it makes a huge diff. The guys still in the millionaires club 3 times over, and he probably did bugger all as a PR flack. Lots of golf would be my guess.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Yeah, probably. And doubtless attended a few executive-staff parties. "This is Arthur, he got us the Aspartame approval."

YES!

[jilara.livejournal.com]

Aside from the other side effects, I have never appreciated the fact that aspartame temporarily eliminates my color vision. I experienced this as recently as this June, when I accidentally got some in a drink, and tried to take off my dark glasses later, to find I wasn't wearing them---things had just turned a bit sepia. (I can tell when I've accidentally gotten it in something in a literal "blind" test by this effect.) And they slip into damned near anything they can get away with putting it into, like yogurt.