ANSWERS: 4
  • Dynamite question. I can usually find the humor in anything, but the answer to this one - well, you can draw your own conclusions. Yes, to answer your question, there's a huge connection between Donald Rumsfeld and Aspartame (NutraSweet). As CEO of Searle, Rumsfeld was a major player in winning FDA approval for Aspartame. "Since its discovery in 1965, controversy has raged over the health risks associated with the sugar substitute [aspartame]. From laboratory testing of the chemical on rats, researchers have discovered that the drug induces brain tumors. On Sept 30, 1980 the Board of Inquiry of the FDA concurred and denied the petition for approval. In 1981, the newly appointed FDA Commissioner, Arthur Hull Hayes, ignored the negative ruling and approved aspartame for dry goods. As recorded in the Congressional Record of 1985, then CEO of Searle Laboratories DONALD RUMSFELD said that he would "call in his markers" to get aspartame approved. Rumsfeld was on President Reagan's transition team and a day after taking office appointed Hayes. No FDA Commissioner in the previous sixteen years had allowed aspartame on the market." http://www.newswithviews.com/NWVexclusive/exclusive15.htm Here's more from the same site: "Dr. Betty Martini has worked in the medical field for 22 years. She is the founder of Mission Possible International, working with doctors around the world in an effort to remove aspartame from food, drinks and medicine. According to Dr. Martini, aspartame has brought more complaints to the American Food and Drug Administration than any other additive and is responsible for 75% of such complaints to that agency. From 10,000 consumer complaints FDA compiled a list of 92 symptoms, including death. The history of aspartame and its approval has a political history as well as a scientific one. According to Dr. Martini, "When Donald Rumsfeld was CEO of Searle, that conglomerate manufactured aspartame. For 16 years the FDA refused to approve it, not only because its not safe but because they wanted the company indicted for fraud. Both U.S. Prosecutors hired on with the defense team and the statute of limitations expired. They were Sam Skinner and William Conlon. Skinner went on to become Secretary of Transportation squelching the cries of the pilots who were now having seizures on this seizure triggering drug, aspartame, and then Chief of Staff under President Bush's father. Some of these people reach high places. Even Supreme Justice Clarence Thomas is a former Monsanto attorney. (Monsanto bought Searle in 1985, and sold it a few years ago). When Ashcroft became Attorney General, Thompson from King and Spalding Attorneys (another former Monsanto attorney) became deputy under Ashcroft. (Attorneys for NutraSweet and Coke). "Donald Rumsfeld was on President Reagan's transition team and the day after he took office he appointed an FDA Commissioner who would approve aspartame. The FDA set up a Board of Inquiry of the best scientists they had to offer who said aspartame is not safe and causes brain tumors, and the petition for approval is hereby revoked. The new FDA Commissioner, Arthur Hull Hayes, over-ruled that Board of Inquiry and then went to work for the PR Agency of the manufacturer, Burson-Marstellar, rumored at $1000.00 a day, and has refused to talk to the press ever since. "There were three congressional hearings because of the outcry of the people being poisoned. Senator Orrin Hatch refused to allow hearings for a long time. The first hearing was in 1985, and Senator Hatch and others were paid by Monsanto. So the bill by Senator Metzenbaum never got out of committee. This bill would have put a moratorium on aspartame, and had the NIH do independent studies on the problems being seen in the population, interaction with drugs, seizures, what it does to the fetus and even behavioral problems in children. This is due to the depletion of serotonin caused by the phenylalanine in aspartame." The above website, BTW, is just one of many I could have chosen to provide the information. When I googled "aspartame and Donald Rumsfeld" I got 38,700 hits. Here are some others: http://www.mercola.com/2005/jan/12/rumsfeld_aspartame.htm http://www.rense.com/general33/legal.htm (This one is a timeline. Very interesting.) http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=1706934. Bob - Maybe this is the product of the fertile and overactive imaginations of conspiracy kooks everywhere. I agree with you on the "If it was all that bad..." idea. Makes a lot of sense. OTOH, there's something not quite right with the whole thing. The pros and cons of NutraSweet or Equal aren't all that interesting to me, quite frankly. My brain is already full of holes from a few other chemicals, so I'm probably immune from the effects of Aspartame, anyway, even if I used it. The outrageous thing is the way Rumsfeld secured the FDA's approval for the stuff. I got the impression that he cared about nothing except that. Think about it. Searle was $28 million in the red when Rumsfeld took over as CEO. When he left the company a few years later, Searle was $120 million in the plus column. Rumsfeld, himself, got somewhere between $4 and $12 million in stock options upon leaving. I doubt FDA approval of Aspartame was the only reason for the turnaround, but I assume it helped. Rumsfeld spent years in the federal government, pre-Searle. (I think he was Gerald Ford's Secretary of Defense.) When Ford lost to Carter, Rumsfeld was out, too. Enter Searle, a pharmaceuticals company with a lot more debt than equity and a boatload of a substance the FDA had refused to approve for sixteen years. They couldn't recoup their R & D investment if they couldn't sell it, and they couldn't sell it without the FDA's blessing. Rumsfeld needed a job. Meanwhile, Searle needed help with the FDA. You figure it out.
  • Certainly both have equal amounts of Cancer potential within them! Can you believe those long answers to silly questions??
  • This might be the first and last time in history that anyone implies that Rumsfeld is sweet!
  • A big one, at that.

Copyright 2023, Wired Ivy, LLC

Answerbag | Terms of Service | Privacy Policy