Cori's Speech at New Mexico Press Conference

February 6, 2006

For me, I simply wanted to investigate whether aspartame had something to do with my illness and whether there was any substance to the claims that aspartame is dangerous.  There were many groups that seemed to offer legitimacy to the safety of aspartame and, at the time, I was unaware of how these organizations operated.  With the help of corporate influence and the flagship power of the FDA, many organizations continue to claim aspartame is safe.

The Multiple Sclerosis Foundation, The National Multiple Sclerosis Society, The National Parkinson Foundation, the Alzheimer's Association, and the Lupus Foundation of America, the American Diabetes Association, the American Medical Association, the Centers for Disease Control, the World Health Organization, as well as regulatory authorities in over 100 countries have concluded that aspartame is a safe sweetener.  So why are so many people getting sick from aspartame?  Because the head of the FDA overruled it's own board of scientists and told the world that it's safe.  That move was successfully exploited by the aspartame industry.

What we ultimately learned from producing our documentary was that the FDA failed to prevent a harmful substance from entering the food supply.  With aspartame, many good people within the FDA tried to protect us, but were overwhelmed by forces that ultimately chose politics over public health.

It seems that industry-funded studies have more to do with public relations than they do with science.  As a result, newspapers are filled with reports of scandals regarding the safety of various pharmaceuticals.  These drugs were already presented as safe and approved for use by the FDA.  Unfortunately, this is not a new phenomenon. 

In the case of aspartame, industry funded studies of the past twenty years cannot be trusted.  In addition, they are not even relevant or pivotal to the approval of aspartame.  The studies that were pivotal to the approval of aspartame were the same studies that involved removing cancerous tumors and simply ignoring other cancerous tumors.  Now we are slowly and painfully learning that industry-funded testing of pharmaceuticals is also suspect.  The British Science Magazine, Nature, recently published a study that found 15% of U.S. researchers admitting to altering their test outcomes to meet the expectations of the companies funding their research.  When we read this we immediately should ask:  "How many more U.S. researchers are altering their test results and not admitting it?"

You won't hear frank discussion from industry representatives of the Ramazzini study, which last year reaffirmed the carcinogenic properties of aspartame.  Instead, you'll hear how the Ramazzini study "flies in the face of two decades of industry-funded research".  This same research has a good chance of being essentially worthless.  That's like saying your working calculater has results that fly in the face of my broken calculator that has given me the same wrong figure for the past 20 years.

We can also safely assume that FDA activity that overtly or obviously smacks of revolving door activity is industry funded.  A pretty blatant case for this is Dr. Arthur Hull Hayse, who overruled the FDA scientists and approved aspartame then quit and landed a job for $1000 dollars a day for Searle's PR firm.  That's pretty expensive and, certainly a source of industry funding.  But there are other means to subvert the regulatory process that are just as effective.  The same industry money that can provide such exorbitant rewards can also provide threats or confusion to postpone any regulator's or lawmaker's move that the corporations dislike, regardless if public health is at stake. 

Some of these coercive means used to pass aspartame in the first place are likely being used here today.  Back then science was replaced by politics.  But since then, we've identified that the non industry-funded science including close to sixty studies,  find problems with aspartame. 

If we are sane citizens who are concerned for our health, we need to know that drugs or food additives are provided to us not because the manufacturer managed to subvert the regulatory process or confuse the public, but because credible scientific studies demonstrate a benefit. 

Taming a monster like the aspartame industry through conventional political means is arduous, but not impossible.    Not with the incomparable vigilance of all of you, and the  thousands of people who are getting the word out and warning their friends and loved ones of this silent toxin.  New Mexico should be proud of its representatives and state regulators who have offered the most vigorous discussion of this issue in more than 20 years.  Thank you.