Editor,
I am writing in regard to Stephen Fox's letter on the toxicity of aspartame published in the Jan. 9 issue of the Daily Lobo.
After careful review of the data that the Ramazzini Foundation of Oncology put forth last summer, it is extremely unlikely that any of the effects they describe will ever be seen in human population.
The amounts of aspartame that were seen to cause blood-based cancers in their rat population were at the smallest 400 parts per million, or 20 milligrams per kilogram. This is the same as a human dose 10 times the size of the normal human intake in the United States of two or three milligrams per kilogram, or three to four packets of blue stuff.
Further, the study did not show any significant results in the male mouse population, and only an insignificant increase in the population given the highest dose. Only the females were susceptible to the blood-based cancers. The scientists also showed no significant decrease in the life span of the rats given aspartame.
There is also no mention of significance when referring to malignant tumors in the National Institute of Health-published umbrella study. So, as for aspartame being a deadly neurotoxin, it seems that even the famed Ramazzini study cannot truly back that up. It seems that the only truly concerning bit of data in the study is that the male population showed a significant increase in lesions of the olfactory epithelium - olfactory relates to senses of smell - from 0.7 percent in controls to 6 percent in the 400 parts per million range, or 10 times the daily intake of a normal person in the United States.
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Besides the fact that I am a personal fan of the way aspartame tastes, I disagree with Fox's idea that an industrial switch to other sweeteners would mean that the industries "wouldn't have to lose a dime of their sacred profits." There would be a great lag in profits while the industrial kitchens all around America scramble to come up with new recipes for all of the 6,000 products that contain aspartame.
I am no economist, but that would seem to have enough magnitude to cause some problems. I think that almost any chemical, if given to an animal in extremely high concentrations, will cause significant problems.
For years, saccharin - or the pink stuff - had a label that warned consumers that it was shown to cause cancer in laboratory animals. That's true - once again, when you give an animal an extremely large amount of something, bad things will occur.
Overall, it seems to me that aspartame should definitely be given a second look-over by the review board of the Food and Drug Administration. But as far as banning it in all of New Mexico right now because of one study with inconclusive results - I have to think that is a little extreme.
Justin Wray
UNM graduate student
