The aim of Soffritti's new study was to identify the cancer risk aspartame presents, starting with the mother's ingestion before the fetus is born. The study was conducted on groups of 70-95 male and female Sprague Dawley rats, administered aspartame with feed at concentrations of 2000, 400, or 0 ppm from the 12th day of fetal life until natural death.

The results of this carcinogenicity bioassay confirm and reinforce the earlier study's demonstration of aspartame's multipotential carcinogenicity. Further, the study demonstrates that when lifespan exposure to aspartame begins during fetal life, its carcinogenic effects magnify.

Dr. Philip Landrigan, Chairman of Community and Environmental Medicine at Mt. Sinai Medical Center, says Dr. Soffritti's study on rats strongly implies human risk. He advises parents of young children to think very very carefully about giving drinks and other aspartame-contaminated foods to children. He advocates federal action be taken to review regulation of aspartame and that the chemical be submitted for precise critical investigation.

The abstract and link to the full text to be published on EHP online, is on the homepage of the European Ramazzini Foundation: www.ramazzini.it

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Aspartame carcinogenicity has been known for decades. In 1985 Dr Adrian Gross, FDA toxicologist, warned Congress that aspartame violates the Delaney Amendment
which prohibits our foods to contain any ingredient causing cancer in animals.

See two letters Dr. Gross addressed to Senator Howard Metzenbaum, and the memo that triggered a request for indictment of Searle for fraudulent submissions. Both US Prosecutors hired onto the defense team and the statute of limitations expired.

Atty. James Turner, author of the Chemical Feast and the Nader Report on Food Protection at FDA, explains: "Since 1974 FDA and the Searle Drug Company have known that aspartame causes brain tumors in animals. In 1980 the public has known the Public Board of Inquiry affirmed the Searle studies showed cancer in animals and ruled that it should not be used in the food supply. It is past time that the FDA invoked the Delaney Clause and remove NutraSweet from the market. In July of 2005 further studies (Ramazzini) underscored the cancer causing capability of NutraSweet/aspartame in animals."

See Mr. Turner in Sweet Misery: A Poisoned World explain how Rumsfeld's aspartame got approved after FDA said no. http://www.soundandfury.tv/pages/rumsfeld2.html

Ralph G. Walton, M.D. of Safe Harbor Behavioral Health, Erie, PA, emphasizes:

"Dr. Soffritti's two outstanding studies on the multipotential carcinogenic effects of aspartame add significantly to the ever-growing body of evidence on the hazards of this artificial sweetener. The FDA's stubborn adherence to their original, and controversial, approval of aspartame is unconscionable. The public must be informed that the approvals, both in this country and Europe, are based on highly questionable industry-funded research, or, in the case of recently issued statements on aspartame's supposed safety, on a questionnaire which in no way represents legitimate research. Independent research, such as the recent Soffritti studies invariably demonstrates the extremely hazardous nature of this product."