- New Mexico Senator Carlos Cisneros (D-Questa) today introduced
Senate Bill 564, to create a new New Mexico Nutrition Council, with advisory
but not regulatory powers, which by statute remain with the New Mexico
Environmental Improvement Board, for food quality and protection.
-
- "The support for this council has come from Senators
from all over New Mexico and from both political parties, 19 of whom signed
the bill out of a 42- member Senate, and this is heartening in our efforts
to protect health and consumers. Because of the present manipulation of
the FDA's approval processes by corporations in a few instances of the
forced approval of many additives, our concerns for health in New Mexico
require that we have a state- level council with the statutory powers and
expertise to at least question particular FDA pronouncements. Many corporations
and their lobbyists would like us to believe that this field is entirely
pre-empted and pre-occupied by the FDA, but many state Senators, as well
as Governor Richardson, recognize that some of these regulatory concerns
must be returned to states."
-
- The Nutrition Advisory Council will be comprised of physicians
(an oncologist, a pediatrician, a toxicologist, a cardiologist, and an
internist), educators, Cabinet Secretaries or designees from Health and
Public Education, the Assistant Attorney General for Consumer Protection,
a biochemist, a certified nutritionist, and organic ranchers and farmers.
-
- The focus of the council as stated in the bill will be
to "study ways to improve the operations of state government relating
to nutrition programs and to the provision of nutrition services to the
residents of the state; recommend courses of instruction and practical
training for employees of departments and other persons involved in the
administration of state nutrition programs with the objective of improving
the operations and efficiency of the administration; develop nutrition
education programs for food stamp recipients; in consultation with nutrition
experts and the appropriate state agencies, recommend nutrition programs,
public education programs and campaigns on health, nutrition and ideal
weight maintenance for all state institutions and public schools, colleges
and universities; and to consult with the university of New Mexico school
of medicine to ensure that its nutrition curricula train medical students
in basic nutrition and how to prevent and treat nutritional diseases.
-
- Areas of immediate concern are: the effect of food additives,
specifically carcinogens and neurotoxins, on the health of all New Mexicans,
particularly on pregnant women, neonates and preschool-age children; the
incidence of diabetes on Indian pueblos and reservations; the effects of
food-induced hyperactivity and attention deficit disorders in children,
and obesity in all age groups.
-
- Senators who signed the bill as it was being introduced
include:
- Cisco Mc Sorley, Chairman, Judiciary
- Tim Jennings, Co-Chairman, Finance
- Dede Feldman, Chair, Public Affairs
- Mary Jane Garcia, Majority Whip and Vice Chair, Public
Affairs
- John Pinto, Chairman, Indian and Cultural Affairs
- Cynthia Nava, Chair, Education
- Phil Griego, Chairman, Conservation
- Mary Kay Papen, Vice Chair, Education
- Gerald Ortiz y Pino, Vice Chair, Corporations
- Lidio Rainaldi, Vice Chair, Indian and Cultural Affairs
- Richard Martinez, Vice Chair, Judiciary
- John Grubesic, Vice Chair, Rules
-
-
- Carlos Cisneros is Vice Chair of the Senate Finance Committee.
-
- An identical bill, House Bill 392, has been introduced
by Navajo Democrat,
- Irvin Harrison of Gallup.
-
- For more information, please contact New Mexico Senator
Carlos Cisneros at
- his capitol office: (505) 986-4863.
-
-
- NM Ban Of Aspartame Back On The Table
-
-
- A New Era of Consumer Protection in New Mexico and in
the United Nations, from Stephen Fox's Santa Fe New Mexican Blog.
-
-
- Introduction..... Banning Aspartame in New Mexico: Is
it going to take as long as New Mexico getting rid of Rooster fighting?
-
- New Mexico Senator Phil Griego has for many long years
been the force that has prevented New Mexico from getting rid of cockfighting,
since he for many years has been the one in the Conservation Committee,
after the testimony had been given by rural Hispanic ranchers that cockfighting
has never been part of their rural Hispanic culture, then Phil Griego always
sounded off about how rural Hispanic cultural values were threatened, and
then the Hispanic Democrat Senators would dutifully vote with Senator Griego
to not give a do pass to the cockfighting bill, no mater how many rural
Hispanic ranchers in their testimony just heard that they were specifically
stating that fighting roosters had never been part of their culture, and
that to suggest that was totally insulting to their rural Hispanic culture.
This "game," I am sure well-intended and sincere on the part
of Senator Griego, has gone on for many years, whether the bill was sponsored
by Democrat Senator Mary Jane Garcia or by Republican Senator Obstetrician
and Gynecologist Steve Komadina of Corrales.
-
- Fortunately for New Mexico's image and peace of mind,
these Senatorial histrionics appear to be finally coming to an end, since
it is clear that Gov. Richardson wants an end to rooster fighting in New
Mexico. (Why not? Massachusetts got rid of it in 1830, and we are only
177 years behind Massachusetts!)
-
- This is by way of introduction to something far more
serious, and that is the bill to ban Aspartame/Methanol/Formaldehyde/Diketopiperazine,
the neurotoxic artificial sweetener, sponsored by Albuquerque Democrat
Senator Gerald Ortiz y Pino, SB 498, and an identical House version, HB
391, sponsored by Rep. Irvin Harrison of Gallup.
-
- Last year, this bill to ban Aspartame, thanks to corporate
lobbyists clamoring that to take this poison out of New Mexico's food products
would somehow lead to a loss of 600 jobs, according to Coca Cola Vice President
Antonio Anaya, was killed in the Senate Public Affairs Committee by a vote
of 5-2, with not one Senator even questioning this specious logic from
Coca Cola, with 5 Senators ignoring the 2 impeccable physicians there to
testify how harmful Aspartame continues to be to humans of all ages.
-
- The most significant of those votes was by Senator Mary
Jane Garcia, who exclaimed that as a diabetic, what would she be able to
drink if this artificial sweetener were removed from sale in New Mexico?
During the interim, between the 2006 and 2007 sessions, several physicians
like H.J. Roberts, M.D., an internist from Palm Beach, Florida, wrote to
Senator Garcia and sent her his brilliant article Aspartame Disease: an
FDA approved Epidemic, which clearly contraindicates ingesting formaldehyde
and methanol for diabetics in order to protect their already suffering
pancreas. The combination of hearing from her constituents, talking with
me, getting letters from Dr. Roberts and Dr. Betty Martini, discussing
the bill with Senator Ortiz y Pino, and some ineluctable enchanted mysterious
factors only found in New Mexico: all of these combined to convince Senator
Garcia to reverse her position and support the ban on Aspartame/methanol/formaldehyde/diketopiperazine
-
- being added to manufactured food products consumed
in New Mexico.
-
-
- What a miracle! What a gift from Providence! What a marvelous
example of constituent politics at work! Now, if we could only get all
of the Republicans in the New Mexico Legislature to see clearly past the
corporate clamour to keep dumping formaldehyde and methanol in 6000 USA
food products and over 500 medications, and see past the fact that it was
gone-but-not- forgotten Donald Rumsfeld who forced the approval for Aspartame
in 1981 through the FDA, we might actually be able to bring about the beginnings
of a real new Era of Consumer Protection in our state.
-
-
- Regretfully, other New Mexico Senators are actually totally
addicted to Aspartame- containing beverages, and collectively, out of their
addiction, their lack of information, and the fact that they are oblivious
to the fact that they are making decisions that affect all 1.8 million
New Mexicans, that collectively these Aspartame-addicted Senators are in
fact slowing down New Mexico getting rid of something much worse and much
more damaging than rooster fighting, and that is the neurotoxic and carcinogenic
artificial sweetener Aspartame!
-
- Victims know what I am writing about is real and urgent;
some physicians also do, but many don't, but what is really striking are
these Senators who continue to imbibe these products, as if it were a joke
somehow, so that they could flaunt any medical advice, a lot of which is
already been availed to them.
-
- Other Republican New Mexico Senators will vote against
banning Aspartame as a party line, just because it was Donald Rumsfeld
who forced it through the FDA in 1981, even then knowing how harmful it
would be (the FDA, to its credit, turned down the approval for Aspartame
from 1966 to 1981; just google <Rumsfeld's Bioweapon Legacy>, to
read more.
-
- Maybe Governor Richardson will miraculously step in and
quietly point out that he, too, like getting rid of rooster fighting, would
like to get rid of Aspartame. He started to do something like this last
year, early in the session, but then some high powered lobbyists put the
kibosh on the Governor speaking out, perhaps reminding him that a Presidential
Candidate should not be impugning Coca Cola, Pepsi Cola, Wrigley's Gum,
Dannon Yogurt, and other corporate end-users of Aspartame.
-
-
- Many of these same corporate lobbyists are still employed,
even in this legislative session, by Ajinomoto of Japan, the world's largest
manufacturer of Aspartame and of another neurotoxic food additive, Monosodium
Glutamate. One of them last year, Michael Stratton of Colorado, is no longer
with Ajinomoto, thus far in this session, perhaps because he is on the
Presidential Exploratory Committee of Governor Richardson, and that in
itself is another welcome change and improvement from the horrendous struggle
which began in January of 2006 by slamming together a bill to ban Aspartame,
which Gerald Ortiz y Pino was intelligent enough and gracious enough to
sponsor, and to reintroduce in 2007.
-
-
- It is staggering to contemplate the amount of "gall"
it would take for these corporations mentioned above to continue to object
to hearings, legislation, and other efforts to protect New Mexicans from
their products.
-
-
- Look, we are in serious trouble as a state if consumer
protection efforts continue to be subverted in the Environmental Improvement
Board (which by statute is the only New Mexico entity with the powers to
actually protect food quality in this state, powers which had never been
used until my thwarted efforts to have Aspartame banned through the EIB),
the Board of Pharmacy, and even in the New Mexico Legislature itself, by
corporate lobbyists, who represent very large corporations that don't want
anyone to dare speak out, raise questions, sue them, talk to the new Attorney
General with his Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry, pass bills outlawing neurotoxins,
etc.
-
- [I am reminded in these efforts of Gandhi's comment:
"First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they attack you,
then you win." That has, in essence, been the story of my work to
ban Aspartame in New Mexico.]
-
- We can get past the nefarious efforts of the corporate
lobbyists by a concerted will of the people, in due course. Will it take
3 or 4 years? If we had a really serious Health Department and a really
serious Environment Department, it shouldn't, however, take more than one
year to get rid of a proven neurotoxin and carcinogen like Aspartame, through
legislative means, if the entire battle were taking place on an even playing
field. I am sure that we have a real Attorney General, with a Ph. D. in
Chemistry, Gary King, and he has yet to weigh in on this. King should by
now have recognized the similarities between the Tobacco suits in the 1990's,
and the Aspartame Corporate liabilities in 2007.
-
- With some New Mexico Senators addicted to Aspartame and
oblivious to the harm that it is doing to their own bodies, the struggle
may become even more difficult, but it may become less difficult as they
begin to recognize the medical symptoms I have been telling them about,
like memory loss, cardiac arrhythmia, and others attributed by the FDA
to Aspartame.
-
-
- The first committee Senate Bill 498 is assigned to is
the Public Affairs Committee. This committee is either going to kill the
Aspartame bill or send it on to Corporations, its second assignment. Corporations'
Chairman, Shannon Robinson, Democrat from Albuquerque, is completely unpredictable
in these matters. If you have time, email Senator Robinson, and if you
are feeling industrious and altruistic, please take the time to communicate
as well to all of the members of the Public Affairs committee, particularly
to Senator Mary Kay Papen, the "swing" vote who is either going
to sink or make swim this entire effort, since the committee appears to
be split 4-4, given that the Republicans will all 4 vote en masse to keep
poisoning New Mexicans with aspartame, that the FDA and the corporations
are still totally in charge, and how dare we even raise these questions
that might impugn the recently departed and recently unemployed Donald
Rumsfeld?
-
-
- Please take the time to write to these Republican members
of the Public Affairs Committee: Steve Komadina, Stuart Ingle, Gay Kernan,
and Steven Neville, as well as to the Committee Chair, Dede Feldman, Democrat
of Albuquerque.
-
-
- Komadina is a curious fellow. I like him, actually: he
really is one of the most genuinely brilliant people in the entire Legislature.
He is an Obstetrician and Gynecologist from Corrales who actually warns
his pregnant patients to never ever consume Aspartame, because of the harm
that it will do to the fetus. However, he is also a member of the Church
of Latter Day Saints and enough of a Republican Libertarian who feels impelled
to prevent the Government from telling anyone what to do or what not to
do, in this case, to not consume a product which is going to be metabolized
as methyl ester, then methanol, then deposit plaques of formaldehyde at
the base of your brain. If only you the reader could convince Dr. Komadina
that this is good politics, good government, and good medicine, to extend
his beneficence to his pregnant patients and their fetuses, to all 1.8
million New Mexicans! Golly, I have tried and tried and tried, and still
failed to convince Dr. Komadina of almost anything, even up to and including
discussions on the Senate floor wherein I reminded him of the Hippocratic
Oath, to do no harm, and that to capitulate to those who do harm through
their products is really something new and different: the Hypocritical
Oath.
-
-
- If you are particularly inspired, as I have been for
the past two years, please extend your correspondence to other fence sitters,
peremptorily sympathetic to the cause of Protecting Consumers in New Mexico,
like Senators Cynthia Nava, Lee Rawson, Phil Griego, Tim Jennings, and
John Arthur Smith, that getting rid of Aspartame is not some petty personal
humorous joke; that it is harming hundreds of thousands of New Mexicans
and hundreds of millions of Americans; that the Legislature must act because
the FDA won't; and that that is what you want them to do AS YOUR LEGISLATORS,
to protect the public health. If they don't in this 2007 session, no one
else is going to.
-
- Maybe it will take New Mexicans keeling over in the street
from brain tumors and Multiple Sclerosis and other entirely avoidable ailments
before any one really acts.
-
-
- Procedural Text: a Blueprint for the First Major Consumer
Protection Legislation in Recent New Mexico History
-
- The effort to Ban the neurotoxic carcinogenic artificial
sweetener, Aspartame, metabolized as methanol and formaldehyde, yet still
found in 6000 USA food products because it was forced through the USA Food
and Drug Administration in 1981 with no concern for human health, is alive
and well in both house of the NM Legislature with two separate bills:
-
- Senate Bill 498, to Ban Aspartame in New Mexico, Gerald
Ortiz y Pino SPONSOR, and the House Bill is House Bill 391, Irvin Harrison
of Gallup, Sponsor; three committee assignments: Consumer and Public Affairs,
Business and Industry, Judiciary.
-
- The bill is to ban the sale of Aspartame/Equal/Nutrasweet
in New Mexico. This is a neurotoxic artificial sweetener that metabolizes
as methanol, then formaldehyde, and even one more brain tumor causing agent,
diketopiperazine. Aspartame's approval was forced through the FDA by then-CEO
of patent holder, G.D. Searle, Donald Rumsfeld, for vast personal gain,
despite the FDA having turned down the approval for 15 prior years.
-
- This broad base of support in the New Mexico Senate and
House of Representatives proves that there is deep concern among legislators
about the failures of the USA FDA to recognize the harm done by Aspartame
to rescind FDA approval; therefore, the legislators are choosing to act
at the state level in order to protect the health of all New Mexicans from
further damage caused by this neurotoxic carcinogen, presently found in
diet sodas, sugarless gum, low fat yogurt, Equal (table sweetener, as well
as more than 500 medications, including children's vitamins and aspirin!!!
-
-
- In asking the broad spectrum of the many great people
of Santa Fe and the many fine readers of the Santa Fe New Mexican to take
the time to write to their Legislators about Aspartame and whatever else
they are concerned about, I hope that the malicious folks who write negative
things about everything and are convinced that taking away this poison
is somehow depriving them of some inalienable right can recognize that
the Legislators are pretty smart folks and can see through malicious shill
letters right away....I particularly remember one commenter who was urging
the other Recalcitrants and Obdurates to go right out to Walmart and buy
five cases of Cherry Diet Coke, his or her favorite....these kinds of critics
will always be around, I suppose; I am just glad that most of them are
so myopic and self- centered that they would never even think of trying
to find a place to park and then wandering into the New Mexico Capitol
to hammer some very busy legislator on his way to a committee hearing about
how it was their divine right, or inalienable right, or even their patriotic
right to drink diet sodas and chew sugarless gum and gulp low fat yogurt
all night long, and that these rights should be somehow continued ad infinitum,
so that every New Mexico school child would know what it was like to be
as full of methanol and formaldehyde as they are!
-
- _________
-
-
- The Senate bill, 498, was signed by Ortiz y Pino, and
supporters who
- included:
-
-
- Cisco McSorley, Chairman, Senate Judiciary
- Linda Lopez, Chairman, Senate Rules
- John Pinto, Chairman, Senate Indian and Cultural Affairs
- Carlos Cisneros, Vice Chair, Senate Finance
- Pete Campos, Member, Senate Finance
- Richard Martinez, Vice Chair Senate Judiciary
- John Grubesic, Vice Chair, Senate Rules
- Lidio Rainaldi, Vice Chair, Indian and Cultural Affairs
- Nancy Rodriguez, Member Senate Finance
- Bernadette Sanchez, Member, Senate Finance
- David Ulibarri, Member, Public Affairs
-
- Supporters can thank them and encourage them to renew
their efforts to
- protect New Mexico's consumers, by calling the Capitol
Switchboard: 505 986-
- 4300
-
- _________________________________________________
-
- Senate Public Affairs Membership:
- Senator Dede Feldman, Chair, Democrat, voted for bill
in committee last year,
- declined to sign it this year, can't be sure what she
will do; must be
- emailed...(<mailto:dede.feldman@nmlegis.gov>dede.feldman@nmlegis.gov)
-
- Senator Mary Jane M. Garcia Vice Chair Democrat-diabetic
advised by her
- physician to drink diet cokes! Voted in Public Affairs
against this bill last
- year, has been affected by Betty Martini's mailings on
what harm is done to
- diabetics by Aspartame, supports legislation in 2007
- (<mailto:Maryjane.garcia@nmlegis.gov>Maryjane.garcia@nmlegis.gov)
-
- Senator Steve Komadina Ranking Member Republican libertarian
physician
- (<mailto:komadina@stevekomadina.com>komadina@stevekomadina.com)
-
- Senator Stuart Ingle Member Republican---WILL VOTE NO
JUST ON PARTY LINES
-
- Senator Gay G. Kernan Member Republican---DECLINED TO
SIGN, BUT COULD BE
- PERSUADED (<mailto:ggkern@valornet.com>ggkern@valornet.com)
-
- Senator Steven P. Neville Member Republican----MOVED
TO KILL BILL LAST YEAR,
- Drinks Diet Sodas, lots of them, maybe impossible to
convince, but worth
- writing to. He is from Aztec New Mexico, where the newspaper
there, the great
- Aztec News, owned by Candy Frizzell, has been publishing
enormous treatises
- of mine, up to 3000 words, for about two years now. (Steven
Neville is:
- <mailto:nmsenate@msn.com>nmsenate@msn.com)
- Senator Gerald Ortiz y Pino Member Democrat----BILL
SPONSOR
-
- Senator Mary Kay Papen Member Democrat-----MUST BE PERSUADED
- (<mailto:marykay.papen@nmlegis.gov>marykay.papen@nmlegis.gov)
-
- Senator David Ulibarri Member Democrat---NEW SENATOR,
SIGNED BILL
-
- ____________________________________________________
- ___________________________________________________
- Corporations Membership:
- Senator Shannon Robinson Chair Democrat, hard to assess
on this one, MUST BE
- CONVINCED RESOUNDINGLY (<mailto:shannon.robinson@nmlegis.gov>shannon.robinson@nmlegis.gov)
-
- Senator Gerald Ortiz y Pino, Democrat (Vice Chairman,
Senate Corporations) ---
- -BILL SPONSOR (just thank him, if you have time: <mailto:jortizyp@aim.com>jortizyp@aim.com)
-
- Senator H. Diane Snyder Ranking Member Republican---MUST
BE CONVINCED
- (<mailto:hsnyder@spinn.net>hsnyder@spinn.net)
-
- Senator Mark Boitano Member Republican----MUST BE CONVINCED
- (<mailto:boitanom@aol.com>boitanom@aol.com)
-
- Senator Dianna J. Duran Member Republican----MUST BE
CONVINCED
- (<mailto:dianna.duran@nmlegis.gov>dianna.duran@nmlegis.gov)
-
- Senator Phil A. Griego Member Democrat----MIGHT VOTE
FOR IT ALONG STRICTLY
- PARTY LINES, MUST STILL BE CONVINCED (<mailto:senatorgriego@yahoo.com>senatorgriego@yahoo.com)
-
- Senator Stuart Ingle Member Republican --WILL VOTE NO
JUST ON PARTY LINES
- (surprising, because his daughter is a physician and
he is a farmer in
- Portales who should know something a lot about growing
real quality food
- products)
-
- Senator Cynthia Nava Member Democrat-MUST BE CONVINCED,
EDUCATION CHAIRMAN
- (<mailto:cynthia.nava@nmlegis.gov>cynthia.nava@nmlegis.gov)
-
- Senator David Ulibarri Member Democrat---NEW SENATOR,
SIGNED BILL
-
- ________________________________________________________________
- The House bill for New Mexico to ban Aspartame, House
Bill 391, with three
- committee assignments: Consumer and Public
- Affairs; Business and Industry, and Judiciary; with these
19 Representatives
- having signed it:
-
- Irvin Harrison (Sponsor, Vice Chair, Consumer and Public
Affairs Committee)
- W. Ken Martinez (Majority Leader New Mexico House of
Representatives)
- Henry Kiki Saavedra (Chairman, House Appropriations Committee)
- Gail Chasey (Chair, House Consumer and Public Affairs
Committee)
- Debbie Rodella (Chair, House Business and Industry Committee)
- Roger Madalena (Chair, Energy and Natural Resources)
- Dan Silva (Chair, House Transportation Committee)
- Jose Campos (Chair, Voters and Elections)
- Miguel Garcia (Chair, Labor and Human Resources)
- Nick Salazar (Chair, Rules and Order of Business; Vice
Chair, Health and
- Government Affairs)
- Bobby Gonzales (Vice Chair, Taxation and Revenue)
- Patricia Lundstrom (Vice Chair, Transportation)
- Ray Begaye (Vice Chair, Agriculture and Water Resources)
- Joni Gutierrez (Member, Appropriations and Finance)
- Elias Barela (Vice Chair, Enrolling and Engrossing)
- Dr. Danice Picraux (Vice Chair, Finance and Appropriations)
- Jim Trujillo (Vice Chair, Energy and Natural Resources)
- Tom Swisstack (Member, Judiciary)
- Andrew Barreras (Member, Business and Industry)
-
- ____________________________________
-
- The Committee Assignments (3) are challenging; following
are lists
- identifying the members of which committees we should
be concentrating our
- efforts on to convince. Those wanting to help this effort
could send quick 2
- sentence notes of thanks and appreciation to these members
above. Here are
- their email addresses, and if they don't do email, I
have listed their
- Capitol Telephone numbers.
- Letters to Governor Richardson and to Lt. Governor Denish
are also helpful;
- they have email forms at their respective websites.
- _____________________________________
-
- Irvin Harrison (<mailto:irv4u@cnetco.com>irv4u@cnetco.com)
- Ken Martinez (<mailto:mlo1@7cities.net>mlo1@7cities.net)
- Henry Saavedra, in care of <mailto:Buffie.Saavedra@state.nm.us>Buffie.Saavedra@state.nm.us
- Gail Chasey <mailto:gailchasey@msn.com>gailchasey@msn.com
- Roger Madalena: 505 986-4417
- <mailto:Debbie.Rodella@nmlegis.gov>Debbie.Rodella@nmlegis.gov
- Jose Campos <mailto:josephs@plateautel.net>josephs@plateautel.net
- Miguel Garcia <mailto:Miguel.garcia@nmlegis.gov>Miguel.garcia@nmlegis.gov
- Nick Salazar <mailto:nlsalazar@lanl.gov>nlsalazar@lanl.gov
- <mailto:plundstrom@nwnmcog.com>plundstrom@nwnmcog.com
- <mailto:Danice.picraux@nmlegis.gov>Danice.picraux@nmlegis.gov
- Joni Gutierrez <mailto:jonig@zianet.com>jonig@zianet.com
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