"Aspartame . . . , a new sweetner marketed under the trade name NutraSweet, releases into the bloodstream one molecule of methanol for each molecule of aspartame consumed. . . . When diet sodas and soft drinks, sweetened with aspartame, are used to replace fluid loss during exercise and physical exertion in hot climates, the intake of methanol can exceed 250 mg/day or 32 times the Environmental Protection Agency’s recommended limit of consumption for this cumulative toxin. There is extreme human variation in the human response to acute methanol poisoning. . . . Humans, due perhaps to the loss of two enzymes during evolution, are more sensitive to methanol than any laboratory animal. . . .

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"When diet sodas and soft drinks, sweetened with aspartame, are used to replace fluid loss during exercise and physical exertion in hot climates, the intake of methanol can exceed 250 mg/day or 32 times the Environmental Protection Agency’s recommended limit of consumption for this cumulative toxin."

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"Ethanol, the classic antidote for methanol toxicity, is found in natural food sources of methanol at concentrations 5 to 500,000 times that of the toxin. . . . Ethanol inhibits metabolism of methanol and allows the body time for clearance of the toxin through the lungs and kidneys." There is no ethanol in aspartame.

"The Food and Drug Administration, Dr. Richard Wurtman and myself have received well over a thousand complaints relative to aspartame consumption. By far the most numerous of these include dizziness, visual impairment, disorientation, ear buzzing, . . . tunnel vision, loss of equilibrium, severe muscle aches, numbing of extremities, pancreatitis, episodes of high blood pressure, retinal hemorrhaging, menstrual flow changes, and depression. The validity of these complaints has yet to be scientifically evaluated.

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". . . well over a thousand complaints [have been received] relative to aspartame consumption. By far the most numerous of these include dizziness, visual impairment, disorientation, ear buzzing, . . . tunnel vision, loss of equilibrium, severe muscle aches, numbing of extremities, pancreatitis, episodes of high blood pressure, retinal hemorrhaging, menstrual flow changes, and depression."

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"There are no human or mammalian studies to evaluate the possible mutagenic, teratogenic, or carcinogenic effects of chronic administration of methyl alcohol" (methanol). "Yet, if predictions are correct it won’t be long before an additional 2,000,000 pounds of it will be added to the food supply yearly.

"Must this, then, constitute our test of its safety?"

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