From: Jaffe, Lyle D
Sent: Tuesday, August 03, 2004 3:08 PM
To: Dockets, FDA
Subject: FW: Testimony from EPA co-worker on aspartame, a doctor now
believer - and says one patient passes out after consuming diet drink

-----Original Message-----
From: Dr. Betty Martini [mailto:Bettym19@mindspring.com]
Sent: Tuesday, August 03, 2004 2:44 PM
To: AspartameSurvivors-yahoogroups.com
Subject: Testimony from EPA co-worker on aspartame, a doctor now
believer - and says one patient passes out after consuming diet drink

Date: Tue, 03 Aug 2004 10:35:13 -0500
From: Doty.Marie@epamail.epa.gov
Subject: Re: A testimony to be shared from one of our own EPA co-workers.
To: Foster.Peggy@epamail.epa.gov
  March 21, 2001
June 9,
  2003) at 08/03/2004 11:35:14 AM

It is so good to hear testimony's from our own EPA employees.  I cannot
drink any of these diet drinks without getting sick.  It makes my
stomach hurt and I just feel full headed and ill.  Aspartame is
certainly a bad chemical and why we are having such a hard time getting
this removed from our foods, medications is beyond me.  Are they making
that much money on this chemical that they cannot remove it from foods?
I know my doctor doesn't believe that Aspartame will hurt me and said I
should use the sugar free sugar, because I was having time losing
weight.  I took his advice this last visit of about a month ago, and I
tried using this EQUAL, and the SLENDRA, and for the first few mornings,
it was ok, but then it just simply nauseated me and I had to stop.  Why
are doctors so reluctant  to help their patients?  I am having a hard
time figuring this one out.

                       Peggy 
Foster 

                                                To: 

                       08/02/04 07:18 AM        cc:       (bcc: Marie 
Doty/R6/USEPA/US)
                                                Subject:  A testimony to be 
shared from one of our own EPA
                                                 co-workers. 

Peggy
214.665.7106
----- Forwarded by Peggy Foster/R6/USEPA/US on 08/02/2004 07:16 AM -----

                       Kimberly 
Owen
                                                To:      Peggy 
Foster/R6/USEPA/US@EPA
                       07/30/2004 
09:40         cc:
                       AM                       Subject: Re: Are 
Aspartame-Induced Arrhythmia Associated with
                                                Sudden Death? Aug 2004; Re: 
#88; Re: H. J. Roberts; Re: M.D.;
                                                Re: F.A.C.P. F.C.C.P. 
Nutrition Health Review; Re: The
                                                Consumer's Medical 
Journal

Peggy,  yes, you may  certainly share this with anyone you  wish.  I am
so grateful for all the information you have shared with me.  I hope my
short declaration was clear as I wrote it in such a hurry.  Something
else I thought you might be interested in........I saw my Internal
Medicine physician yesterday and shared this information with him (e.g.
my limiting or stopping the use of Aspartame in my diet) and he was
amazed that my heart symptoms had disappeared.  Then he told me he had a
patient that if she drank even one diet drink or anything with Aspartame
in it, she immediately passed out within minutes of consuming the
product.   I'm a believer.  Thank you Peggy.  I am now spreading the
word about the dangers of Aspartame.  Have a great day.

Kimberley C. Owen
Environmental Protection Asst.
U.S. EPA
Region VI
1445 Ross Ave suite 1200
Dallas, TX 75202-2733
Mailcode: 6PD-I
owen.kimberly@epa.gov

                       Peggy 
Foster 

                                                To:      Kimberly 
Owen/R6/USEPA/US@EPA
                       07/29/2004 
03:51         cc:
                       PM                       Subject: Re: Are 
Aspartame-Induced Arrhythmia Associated with
                                                Sudden Death? Aug 2004; Re: 
#88; Re: H. J. Roberts; Re: M.D.;
                                                Re: F.A.C.P. F.C.C.P. 
Nutrition Health Review; Re: The
                                                Consumer's Medical 
Journal(Document link: Kimberly Owen)

Wow, Kim, that is super!  Just think, with the continued  decrease and
eventual abstinence of aspartame, you may just start feeling better than
ever.  Would you mind if I shared this with the rest of the group?

Peggy
214.665.7106

                       Kimberly 
Owen
                                                To: 
buttons0520@webtv.net, marcia bOHLING,
                       07/29/2004 12:34          Chattam.Julia@epa.gov, 
ccochran99@aol.com, Chesteena
                       PM                        Hullum/R6/USEPA/US@EPA, 
powers.judith@epa.gov, Diane
                                                 Henderson/R6/USEPA/US@EPA, 
Lisa Kapsh/R6/USEPA/US@EPA,
                                                 Shirley 
Langley/R6/USEPA/US@EPA, Peggy Foster/R6/USEPA/US@EPA
                                                cc: 

                                                Subject:  Are 
Aspartame-Induced Arrhythmia Associated with
                                                 Sudden Death? Aug 
2004
                                                 #88 

                                                 H. J. 
Roberts
                                                 M.D. 

                                                 F.A.C.P. F.C.C.P. 
Nutrition Health Review
                                                 The Consumer's Medical 
Journal

I've been reading all these articles and I've started to limit my use of
Aspartame.....no more in my coffee and only one diet drink a day.  The
fluttering of my heart which use to occur frequently through the day
when I used Aspartame daily,sent me to a cardiologist for numerous tests
earlier this month.  Luckily, my heart is o.k.  but I was
told......since I have panic attacks.....I was experiencing one when I
had chest pain and fluttering of my heart.
That is not true.  I was sitting on my couch w/ my puppy watching a
movie.  However, I had drank alot of coffee w/aspartame that a.m. and
was drinking tea sweetened w/aspartame when I had chest pain and my
heart began to flutter and hurt.  Since I have limited my use of
Aspartame in the last three weeks......my heart does not flutter and I
have not had chest pain either.   Testimony - Kimberley C. Owen

----- Forwarded by Kimberly Owen/R6/USEPA/US on 07/29/2004 12:15 PM
-----

                       Peggy 
Foster 

                                                To: 

                       07/29/2004 07:46         cc:       (bcc: Kimberly 
Owen/R6/USEPA/US)
                       AM                       Subject:  Are 
Aspartame-Induced Arrhythmia Associated with
                                                 Sudden Death? Aug 
2004
                                                 #88 

                                                 H. J. 
Roberts
                                                 M.D. 

                                                 F.A.C.P. F.C.C.P. 
Nutrition Health Review
                                                 The Consumer's Medical 
Journal

Please take a few minutes to go to www.wnho.net.  Sign the petition to
free Diane Fleming from prison.  Then read some of the comments from
those who have already signed the petition.  You can also see the
lawsuits that have been filed in California.  If we just sit back and do
nothing, more people will fall victims to aspartame and it might just be
someone you love.

Peggy
214.665.7106
----- Forwarded by Peggy Foster/R6/USEPA/US on 07/29/2004 07:43 AM -----

                       "Dr. 
Betty 

                       Martini"                 To:       "Activist 
List-yahoogroups.com"
                       <Bettym19@mindspr 
<Activist_List@yahoogroups.com>
                       ing.com>                 cc: 

                                                Subject:  Are 
Aspartame-Induced Arrhythmias Associated with
                       07/28/2004 08:24          Sudden Death? Aug 2004, 
#88, H. J. Roberts, M.D., F.A.C.P.
                       PM                        F.C.C.P. Nutrition Health 
Review, The Consumer's Medical
                                                 Journal 

A review of sudden death in young athletes, reported in the New England
Journal Of Medicine (2003:1064) made no mention of aspartame as a
primary
cause of suspected contributory factor, especially when demonstrable
disease was absent.  This problem has assumed great public health
importance, because two-thirds of the population, especially those who
are
watching their weight, are consuming "diet" products containing this
chemical.

I have repeatedly reported the serious cardiovascular, neuropsychiatric,

metabolic and other adverse effects of aspartame products in my earlier
publications.  Among the first 1,200 aspartame reactors in my database,
16
percent had symptomatic arrhythmias, 7 percent had atypical chest pain
and
3 percent had hypertension.

My report includes one hypertensive patient who had a complete heart
block
within hours after consuming his first diet cola.  Another patient had
undergone unsuccessful radiofrequency ablations in the heart before
anyone
was aware that he had aspartame disease.  In addition, pheochromocytoma,
a
usually benign, vascular tumor, was suspected in several aspartame
reactors.

The issue of sudden death related to aspartame and its breakdown
products
has been raised a number of times, particularly among previously healthy

people.  Over the years, I have detailed the release of norepinephrine,
epinephrine, dopamine and free methanol by aspartame; a host of related
pathophysiological conditions (e.g., cumulative formaldehyde adducts
derived from aspartame in tissue proteins and nucleic aids; excessive
insulin release); direct oropharyngeal absorption from gum and breath
fresheners; and the increasing problem of aspartame addiction.

The likelihood of pulmonary hypertension induced by the vasoconstrictive

effects of aspartame products also has been considered.  It is relevant
that 110 aspartame reactors experienced unexplained shortness of breath
(dyspnea) and that  they usually improved promptly after
abstinence.  Moreover, one 27 year old woman was found to have primary
pulmonary hypertension upon autopsy.

The need for clinicians and corporate-neutral investigators to evaluate
the
contributory role of aspartame in cardiopulmonary disorders and sudden
death, along with drug interactions with aspartame, is underscored by
the
frequency of attributing unexpected deaths to "causes yet to be
determined."
_________________________________________

H. J. Roberts, M.D., is author of Aspartame Disease: An Ignored
Epidemic,
the medical text on the global plague, www.sunsentpress.com   or 1 800
827
7991. (and other books and tapes on the subject).   Now retired he has
treated victims of aspartame disease in the trenches of medical practice

for 20 years.

COMMENTS BY MARTINI:  This report brings to mind the case of Diane
Fleming
who was sentenced to 50 years for poisoning her husband with
methanol.  Charles Fleming was a diet pop addict, body builder and
athlete,
playing basketball as much as four times a week.   Many have heard about

how many have athletes have dropped dead.  The FDA used ephedra to cover

the fact  aspartame triggers an irregular heart rhythm, interacts with
all
cardiac medication, damages the cardiac conduction system and causes
sudden
death. It was an ideal way for the FDA, handmaiden of the pharmaceutical

industry, to snatch another safe supplement for this industry to whom
they
give their loyalty instead of the American people.  Obviously, if
ephedra
was dangerous they would have removed it  completely from the market but

since its okay for the pharmaceutical industry to use it, they show you
it
was only a hoax against the consumer public and ephedra is really
safe.  Read the Ephedra Story on www.wnho.net, click on aspartame.  In
fact, one of the most famous neuroscientists in the world today, Dr.
John
Olney, who founded the field of neuroscience called excitotoxicity,
reviewed all the FDA's records and said it was safe.

   Athletes are quite prone to sudden death from aspartame
(NutraSweet/Equal/Spoonful, E951, Canderel, etc.) because when they run
they deplete magnesium and its magnesium that protects the brain heart
and
heart from excitotoxins (the aspartic acid in aspartame is an
excitotoxin),
according to neurosurgeon Russell Blaylock, M.D.

You will notice Dr. Roberts mentions the shortness of breath you see in
aspartame victims and on the autopsy of Flemings it notes for the month
before he died he suffered this.  His heart was enlarged (cardiomegaly)
showing there had been damage.  The autopsy even mentioned the chronic
methanol poisoning.  Dr. Roberts explains aspartame liberates free
methyl
alcohol, and its this chronic methanol poisoning that affects the
dopamine
system of the brain and causes addiction.  Fleming was very addicted.

Aspartame also interacts with anti-depressants and other psycho drugs
and
when Fleming was taken to the hospital he was given a drug that was in
the
Valium family.  (Aspartame Disease: An Ignored Epidemic, H. J. Roberts,
M.D., discusses drug interaction,  www.sunsentpress.com ).  They were
not
aware  Fleming had poisoned himself with this deadly chemical poison.

As several physicians looked at the autopsy and realized Fleming died
from
aspartame, including Dr. Roberts notarized affidavits were written on
the
real cause of his death.  A meeting was set up with Dr. Roberts and
medical
examiner, Dr. Marcello Fierro.  At the last minute she cancelled the
appointment, knowing the attorney would be gone on another case for a
couple of months.  Dr. Roberts realizing this innocent Sunday School
teacher would remain in prison because of this said he would make
himself
available at any time. Dr. Fierro then said she would only do this when
the
attorney returned.  Dr. Roberts waited again.  Months later another
appointment was set up and Dr. Roberts spent the day gathering all the
research Dr. Fierro would need to understand how aspartame caused the
death
of Fleming.  He was to confer with her by conference call.  When she got
to
the meeting she refused to speak to Dr. Roberts even though she had
agreed,
and this was the reason for the meeting.    The attorney handed her the
peer reviewed journal article by Dr. Woodrow Monte, Aspartame:  Methanol

and the Public Health, Journal of Applied Nutrition, l984 (copy can be
read
on www.dorway.com/nomarkle.html ).  She has claimed there is no peer
reviewed journal article.  Because the autopsy says chronic methanol
poison
as well she made the ludicrous comment that Fleming must have sustained
acute methanol poisoning on two other different occasions.  First of all

the autopsy showed chronic methanol poisoning  with even the expected
fatty
liver (Trocho Study showed most toxicity in the liver).   Anyone knows
if a
person had suffered acute methanol poisoning on two different occasions
he
wouldn't have lived to be poisoned the third time.  Without treatment
consumers don't get over acute methanol poisoning.  So she converted the

chronic methanol poisoning which she herself wrote about to two bouts of

acute methanol poisoning in the past showing she wanted to cover this
up.

In speaking with a very experienced newsman and owner of a newspaper
about
the case he said:  "If a medical examiner would do such a thing, then an

investigation should be carried out.  It has been my experience if you
see
someone in a coverup like this there has been another coverup in the
past.  I would advise anyone interested in this case to check out the
Vince
Foster case where you will find it was Dr. Marcello Fierro who moved the

wound!  Further investigation showed she had covered up the forensics in

another case.
Dr. Roberts and I reported Dr. Fierro to the Grievance Dept of the
Virginia
Medical Board.

We ask everyone reading this new report by Dr. Roberts to stop off at
www.wnho.net and sign the petition to free Diane Fleming.  She has two
sons
and little girl who wants her mother.  We hope  anyone who can help
Diane
please get involved so we can bring her home.  She has lost because of
aspartame her loving husband, her children, her home and her freedom.

If you would like to see Diane Fleming tell her story a new movie has
been
released on aspartame (NutraSweet/Equal) called Sweet Misery:  A
Poisoned
World.  You will also hear some of the world experts including Doctors
Roberts, Blaylock, Walton and Bowen, as well as James Turner, a
Washington,
D.C. consumer attorney who along with the famed Dr. John Olney attempted
to
prevent approval of aspartame.  He explains Donald Rumsfeld was CEO of
Searle, the original manufacturer.  And when the FDA tried to get them
indicted for fraud and refused to approve this neurotoxin, Rumsfeld said
he
would call in his markers and get it approved anyway.  He was on
President
Reagan's transition team and the day after taking office appointed
Arthur
Hull Hayes as FDA Commissioner.  But Reagan was afraid it might take a
month to get Hayes there so he actually wrote an executive order making
the
current FDA Commissioner powerless to do anything about aspartame.  When

Hayes got to the FDA the Board of Inquiry met and said aspartame was
NEVER
PROVEN SAFE and caused brain tumors, that the petition for approval was
hereby revoked.  Arthur Hull Hayes over-ruled the Board of Inquiry  and
approved it anyway, and then went work for the PR Agency of the
manufacturer, and has refused to talk to the press ever since.  And
that's
why the consumer public in 100 countries of the world using aspartame
suffer Sweet Misery, and why we have A Poisoned World.

Also in the film is Arthur Evangelista, a former FDA Investigator, who
gives you the real facts.  He left the FDA many years ago because of
corruption there and because he saw reports being "altered".  Reminds me
of
the FDA audit, the Bressler Report.  In speaking to Jerome Bressler, he
stated the studies on aspartame were so bad that when the FDA retyped
his
report they had 20% of the most damning information removed.  You can
read
this report on www.dorway.com

If you want a copy of this film, Sweet Misery, simply email Cori
Brackett
at cori@soundandfuryproductions.com  or you can fill out the form on
www.wnho.net  You can also call toll free to 1 866-624-9710.

Remember the first weekend after Labor Day is Aspartame Awareness
Weekend.  The Idaho Observer has provided 24 page booklets to give out
on
Rumsfeld Disease called the Artificially Sweetened Times.  You can
either
email Don Harkins at observer@coldreams.com or go to
www.idaho-observer.com

We suggest you also get the movie into the hands of your congressman,
doctor and let it be shown at schools so pop machines will be
removed.  Today our children suffer from serious brain problems because
of
this neurotoxin including ADD, ADHD, Tourettes, autism and behavioral
problems.  It interacts with all vaccinations meaning our children don't

have a chance.  Even young athletes in school are dropping dead
according
to a multitude of reports.

One of the scientists who did the research on aspartame for Searle left
in
disgust after telling them not to market aspartame because it was
poison.  He went all over the US warning people not to use it.  He
evidently was up in years and told a woman in Atlanta he wouldn't live
to
the horrors it would cause and said:  "In twenty years people everywhere

will be having seizures, and it interacts with anti-seizure
medication.  The people will actually be dropping dead in the
streets!".  It's very sad this prophecy has been fulfilled.  The last
call
I got about him was from a woman about three years ago in Boston  who
worked in a dental office.  She  said she worked on his daughter's
teeth.  Her father had now passed on, his last words, warn everybody
aspartame is a killer!

Dr. Betty Martini, Founder, Mission Possible International, 9270 River
Club
Parkway, Duluth, Georgia 30097  770 242-2599  www.wnho.net and
www.dorway.com

Aspartame lawsuits against some of the largest companies in the world
for
knowingly poisoning the public are on www.wnho.net    Aspartame Toxicity

Center, www.holisticmed.com/aspartame