Date: Mon, 21 Feb 2000 15:04:16 -0500 To: "pubinq@ntsb.gov" From: Betty Martini Subject: National Transportation Safety Board says "Do Ask, Do Tell of Drug Use", Yet Refuses to Listen or Act! Permission to Reproduce with Credit - Circulate please Cc: "jane.garvey@faa.dot.gov" , "web@usdoj.gov" Dear NTSB: Your January 20 announcement left me nonplussed. You want Americans to report medicines that diminish their performance as drivers and pilots; and you report investigating "over 100 accidents in all modes of passenger transportation" involving drugs. Why, then, do you ignore a known neurotoxin and seizure triggering addictive drug, which interacts with other drugs, changes brain chemistry, blinds, destroys memory, obliterates concentration, destroys the central nervous system and triggers sudden death. Wrote Neurosurgeon Russell Blaylock MD in a position paper on pilots [author of Excitotoxins: The Taste That Kills]: "I have reviewed some of the reports from airline and private pilots concerning adverse effects of aspartame on various physiological systems ...Several of these complaints are related to the nervous system which put this in a category of great concern to the pilot as well as the general public. More common complaints include disorientation, difficulty thinking and concentrating, visual blurring or even monocular blindness, seizures and heart failure. "One of the intriguing associations with excitotoxins of all types is the occurrence of sudden death. ... It is my opinion that aspartame is a dangerous neurotoxin, as well as a significant carcinogen for many organs, and that it should be avoided at all cost." (Aviation page on www.dorway.com) Atlanta Journal Constitution in a 6/25/99 article reported the National Transportation Safety Board is questioning the high rate of American Airline Crashes. I wrote you then that 5 American Airline pilots, heavy aspartame users, died, of classic symptoms of this poison. Pilot Joe Neill died in flight and American did an unauthorized autopsy to his brain and according to his widow, AA refused to let her see it. Could it be because Captain Fred Fox had petitioned American to remove Equal from the planes and they had refused? Another AA pilot had a stroke. These pilots might be alive if AA listened. When they were warned in the late 80s by Barbara Mullarkey, anti-aspartame journalist, AA sneered "Leave the flying to us". As there was no response from you so I contacted the Department of Transportation and after many calls to unconcerned officials I was referred to the Hotline. I received this email: Dear Mrs. Martini: This is in response to your complaint received 7/9/99 to the U.S. Department of Transportation, Office of Inspector Hotline Complaint Center requesting airline pilots be prohibited from consuming a neurotoxin. (aspartame) Based on our review, we have determined the issues you raise do not warrant investigative action by this office at this time, however, we will forward your complaint to the Federal Aviation Administration, for their review and appropriate handling. .... 7/19/99 [Signed] Helen Robinson, Senior Special Agent for Complaint Operations DOT had no concern that pilots are dying and consuming a poison that triggers seizures, cardiac arrest, aneurysms, brain tumors, etc, exactly the pilots' symptoms. So I called DOT in Atlanta and they promised to set up an appointment, but and never did. Why is it that whenever you mention aspartame government officials run and hide? Flying Safety, an official U S Air Force magazine said in May 1992: "People have suffered disorders with doses as small as that carried in a single stick of chewing gum. This could mean a pilot who drinks diet sodas is more susceptible to flicker vertigo or flicker induced epileptic activity ... all pilots are potential victims of sudden memory loss, dizziness during instrument flight and gradual loss of vision." We get complaints from truckers and other drivers reporting: "I was drinking a diet soda, had a seizure and the next thing that happened is I woke up in a hospital after a crash." One case in your note involved a bus that crashed into a parked tractor-trailer. Seven people died and 18 were injured. An investigation it says showed the driver's alertness may have been impaired by an antihistamine he took. Did he take it with a diet drink? One pilot wrote: "Dumb I'm not but I couldn't make a decision and crashed my plane in a tree." January's Townsend Letter for Doctors features a 6 page report on aspartame addiction by H. J. Roberts MD. One component of aspartame, methanol/wood alcohol, is classed as a narcotic. (Louis, R. J. Sax's Dangerous Properties of Industrial Materials, 8th Edition, New York, Van Nostrand Reinhold (l992) pp. 2251-2252 Aspartame originally had a drug application but was withdrawn to be marketed as an additive so not to require safety monitoring. Dr. Woodrow Monte said: "Aspartame is a drug, not a food additive. One hundred million people, from little babies to the elderly, are consuming this stuff in megadoses, more than they ever would if it were labeled as a drug." (Informed Consent, May/June l994) H. J. Roberts, MD (www.sunsentpress.com) has declared Aspartame Disease a world epidemic. He wrote in the The Palm Beach Post: "Several recent plane accidents underscore the need for further inquiry into a heretofore neglected cause of pilot and driver error: confusion and aberrant behavior caused by products containing aspartame. For example, did the co-pilot who inadvertently hit the disengage button before the recent US Air jet accident, and then acted irrationally' ingest an aspartame diet soda or coffee sweetened with an aspartame tabletop sweetener? I have repeatedly pointed out these and related problems in many scientific articles and addresses over the past three years. They are based on personal observations and a nationwide study. My report on 157 persons with aspartame-induced confusion and memory loss was published last month. The subjects included trained pilots who developed these and other neurologic psychiatric features .. including convulsions and visual problems." [10/14/89] How many pilots and drivers stir Equal into their coffee, sprinkle it on their cereal, drink aspartame-laced juice, and chew aspartame gum before they get in a car or the cockpit of an airliner? Dr. Ralph Walton, Psychiatrist, Chairman of the Center for Behavioral Medicine said: "We have known for years that when aspartame is ingested with a carbohydrate rich meal the usual physiologic increase in tryptophan is blocked, while brain phenylalanine and tyrosine concentrations are increased. These changes in amino acid neurotransmitter precursors could, I believe, alter indoleamine/catechloramine balance, and thus have a profound effect on mood and cognition .. depressed mood, anxiety, dizziness, panic attacks, nausea, irritability, impairment of memory and concentration." This doctor stated on 60 Minutes that almost all independent studies not controlled or funded by Monsanto/NutraSweet showed problems! His peer reviewed research is on www.dorway.com When Jane Garvey became FAA head I sent her the facts and since have sent her case histories. She sent me an email promising to get in touch, but of course she never did. The position of the FAA is an outright copout that they can't do anything because the FDA approved it. No law says she can't warn pilots off aspartame because it triggers seizures! In study SC 18862 on 7 infant monkeys 72% had seizures and one died, a casualty rate of 86%! Now drivers and pilots are the monkeys, thanks to the Orangutans at DOT, FDA, FAA, CDC, etc. What government agency ha the right to flush this traffic and aviation hazard on us because FDA is sitting on the potty? A Board of Inquiry denied approval of aspartame, but FDA Commissioner Arthur Hull Hayes over-ruled them, approved it anyway, then went to work as a consultant for the manufacturer's PR outfit on a sweetheart contract. Senior FDA Toxicologist, Dr. Adrian Gross, told Congress aspartame violated the Delaney Amendment because of the brain tumors and admitted: "And if the FDA violates its own law who is left to protect the public?" Monsanto should be indicted for genocide. James Bowen MD told the FDA years ago: "Aspartame is mass poisoning of the American public and more than 70+ countries of the world ...the only responsible action would be to immediately take aspartame off the market, fully disclose its toxicities, offer full compensation to the injured public and criminally prosecute anyone who participated in the placement of aspartame on the market. That includes those who work so diligently to keep it there as well." George Schwartz, MD, Toxicologist and flight surgeon wrote Monsanto: "By ignoring the scientific studies which disagree with your position, you are doing a great disservice to consumers. Further, you may have created a base for litigation against your company by denying existing science." I'm amazed that you can so tenaciously cling to the delusion that evil will never be punished. Judgement day is here! Betty Martini, Mission Possible International - Mission Possible Aviation 770 242-2599 http://onhealth.com/ch1/briefs/item,77876.asp JANUARY 20, 2000 NTSB: Do Ask, Do Tell of Drug Use The federal government wants to know which over-the-counter and prescription drugs can be used safely by people who operate trucks, trains, boats and buses in an effort to reduce crashes in which medication use may have played a role. The National Transportation Safety Board wants to produce a list so vehicle operators know which medications will not impair their ability to drive. The federal agency is also asking the Food and Drug Administration to develop easy-to-read warning labels on medications that may interfere with a driver's ability to operate a vehicle. The U.S. Department of Transportation says it also will look into the NTSB's recommendation. Currently federal investigators gather information on five classes of drugs that may contribute to accidents: marijuana, cocaine, opiates, amphetamines and phencyclidine. The Federal Railway Administration also tests for barbiturates and benzodiazepines, such as Valium. But those regulations do not include investigating over-the-counter medications or several prescription drugs, such as antidepressants. One case in June 1998 involved a bus that crashed into a parked tractor-trailer in Pennsylvania. Seven people died and 18 were injured. An investigation showed the driver's alertness may have been impaired by an antihistamine he took. "Since 1987, the safety board has investigated over 100 accidents in all modes of passenger transportation that involved prescription or over-the-counter medications whose effects could potentially impair the vehicle's operator," the NTSB said in a statement. The NTSB recommendation does not apply to automobiles. There is already a system for testing pilots who take prescription and nonprescription drugs. Daily Briefings by Katrina Woznicki