DALLAS, TX - USA - November 4, 1996 - (ACSN) -- Doubts about the safety of the artificial sugar sweetener, Aspartame, better-known in the U.S. as NutraSweet and Equal, surfaced anew in this country and Europe, with the release of new research on the issue. Publication of the medical Journal of Neuropathology and Experimental Neurology, November 1996, Vol. 55, No. 1, pp. 1115-1123, reveals a study, authored by Dr. John Olney et al, titled: "Increasing brain tumor rates: is there a link to aspartame?" Olney, lead author of the paper, is a noted neuropathologist and psychiatrist who has challenged Aspartame's safety since the 1970s. The U.S. increase - about 1,310 cases per year - was marked by rising diagnoses of the same type of highly malignant tumor found in laboratory rats in an Aspartame study in the 1970s, the scientists said.
Mary Nash Stoddard, Director of the Aspartame Consumer Safety Network, fighting the FDA and the giant artificial sweetener industry over this issue since 1987, said ACSN's files contain over 10,000 complaints about the sweetener. Most of them central nervous system related. A number of the complainants - heavy consumers of the sweetener - suffered from brain tumors. One, a commercial airline pilot who lost his medical license to fly, blames Aspartame for the brain tumor resulting in the loss of his flying status. More than 1,000 pilot-related calls have come in since the pilot's hotline was established. Stoddard refers to a 'ticking time bomb' in every cockpit on every flight in the form of diet sodas, packets of 'blue sugar' and chewing gums.
Members of ACSN were featured October 24 and 25 on national television, telling of central nervous system related ailments they and their doctors linked to the sweetener. Commercial airline pilots related incidents of grand mal seizures in the cockpit, in flight. The mother of a three year old claimed her daughter suffers permanent neurological damage due to her consumption of Aspartame in children's vitamins. The HARD COPY segments also portrayed a 30-yr-old diabetic male who had experienced a stroke which his doctor blamed on daily use of the sweetener of choice for diabetics, Aspartame. Dr. Russell Blaylock, neurosurgeon author of 'Excitotoxins: The Taste That Kills' stated that he sees these problems routinely in his practice. Headaches, Seizures, Blindness, Dizziness, Mental Confusion, Depression, Fatigue, Muscle/Joint pain, Numbness, Hearing Loss, Cramping, Spasms, Skin Problems, Heart Attack Symptoms, Mood Swings are a few of the 92 reported symptoms of Aspartame adverse reactions, including deaths.
The London Observer broke the story in Europe , interviewing Anti-Aspartame Activist in the U.K., Dr. Erik Millstone of the University of Sussex.