- Seventeen hours after the tires of my Air China jet settled
comfortably onto the runway at Beijing International Airport, I was sitting
at the National Health Federation's place in the 40th Session of the Codex
Committee on Food Additives (CCFA) week-long meeting at the Asia Hotel
in downtown Beijing on Monday morning, April 21st. The weather had not
cooperated as it rained incessantly, making available taxis as scarce as
condom dispensers in the Vatican. Nor did it help that I could not speak
a word of Mandarin Chinese; English, French, and bad German can only get
you so far, even in this international city. But, I made it, sliding into
NHF's seat in time to hear CCFA Chairman Dr. Junshi Chen's opening remarks.
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- The NHF is the only Codex-accredited health-freedom
organization with the right to attend Codex committee meetings such as
this one. In fact, although the NHF has for years been attending many other
Codex committee and commission meetings - in Germany, Canada, France, Italy,
Switzerland, Norway, and Thailand - this CCFA meeting was the first for
us.
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- In his opening remarks, the Chairman proudly
told us that 65 countries and 13 INGOs (International Non-Governmental
Organizations), totaling 262 registered delegates, were in attendance.
I could see that the NHF was the only consumer organization in attendance.
The rest of the room was filled with government officials, bureaucratic
functionaries, and diverse industry representatives. Strange, no other
consumer groups were in sight - I was alone in a sea of government-industry
group hugs.
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- Why We Fight
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- As we have stressed for years, even decades,
the artificial sweeteners Aspartame, Neotame, and Sucralose are dangerous
food additives that have been shown to harm health. All three have caused
adverse events in consumers and are best avoided. Yet, this Committee has
seen fit to advance these three substances along the path to approval.
Once approved as Codex food additives, these artificial sweeteners would
then be legally adoptable virtually worldwide.
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- You see, what is not well known - and certainly
not well publicized - is the fact that the developing countries of the
World are adopting into their own national regulations Codex standards
hot off the press. In fact, some of these countries are so eager to adopt
Codex food standards that they are not even waiting until the Codex Alimentarius
Commission itself approves and adopts the standards - they are adopting
the draft Codex standards! That is how desperate they are for these standards.
Many of these countries are actually required to adopt Codex standards.
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- So, as soon as these food-additive standards
are approved - maybe even before - they will be pressed into national service
throughout the World. Codex has a multiplier effect previously unseen on
this planet.
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- Raining On The Parade
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- The Chairman progressed through the Agenda,
wisely resolving issues concerning seaweed and carrageenan as well as vegetable
carotenoids. Even the question of lycopene as a food additive was addressed
by its being held and not endorsed by the Committee pending clarification
by the Milk and Milk Products Committee as to safety concerns. "Whether
we endorse or not," the Chairman intoned, "the real issue is
safety."
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- But these were small road bumps on the path
to approval and CCFA rolled onwards, soon arriving at those issues most
important to our members. When the moment arrived, NHF spoke up to oppose
the inclusion of Aspartame, Sucralose, Alitame, Neotame, and Aspartame-Acesulfame
Salt in the Codex food-additive standards. All of these sweeteners, we
argued, were documented as dangerous to human health and have no place
in human food.
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- These comments elicited a strong reaction from
Dr. Angelika Tritscher, formerly with Nestle and now the World Health Organization
half of the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA) representatives
seated at the head table, who spoke at length about how these sweeteners
were only included here because they had already been evaluated for safety
and found to be harmless. There is data, she said, for full safety assessment.
Then she trotted out the old argument about how every substance is toxic
at some level, as if that could mean that we should all sprinkle our foods
with lead, if just we were to use the right amount.
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- I asked for the floor again and responded that
of course everything from water to food can be toxic at some level but
that is not the point here. The point is whether or not these substances
are safe at any level, especially Codex levels. We at NHF have found that
even as few as two cans of diet soda per day can deliver a toxic amount
of these artificial sweeteners. While JECFA may feel that the science is
settled, at best the science is unsettled. And after having attended numerous
CCNFSDU Committee meetings for many years, and now this CCFA meeting for
the first time, NHF is amazed that the precautionary principle applied
to natural substances such as vitamin-and-mineral food supplements in one
Codex committee would not then be applied in this Committee to dangerous,
man-made substances. This,! I said, is astounding.
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- JECFA had no response, and the Committee soon took its
late-afternoon break.
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- The Rain Continues
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- CCFA soon resumed its meeting with the United
States delegate delivering his report of the Electronic Working Group on
the GSFA (General Standards for Food Additives). Once again, NHF stated
its objections to the inclusion of the artificial sweeteners in these Codex
standards. These comments fell on seemingly deaf ears, but NHF's remarks
about the dangers of aluminum-containing food additives such as aluminum
silicate, aluminum ammonium sulphate, calcium aluminum silicate, and sodium
aluminosilicate seemed to resonate more fully with the Chairman. In particular,
I noted to the Committee that it seemed as if I were transported back 2000
years to Ancient Rome and warning of the dangers of lead in tableware and
glasses. Aluminum is our 21st Century health danger and is both cumulative
in the body and unnecessary. I sugge! sted that JECFA should carefully
review all aluminum additives' safety.
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- The Chairman noted his own concern about the
safety of aluminum and remembered when this same Committee had reviewed
aluminum as a food contaminant, but added that this agenda item was only
at Step 3 of the process. "The idea," he said, "is to put
this on the table and ask for comments. We will have more discussions at
further steps."
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- Then, again, another opportunity appeared to
state NHF's opposition to including Aspartame, Neotame, and Sucralose as
Codex-approved food additives when the representative for the International
Sweeteners Association (ISA) asked the Committee to increase the permitted
levels of Sucralose in flavored alcoholic drinks and "ready-to-eat
savouries." Japan spoke up in support of ISA, while NHF opposed ISA
and Japan on this point. After our comments, the United States, Canada,
Australia, and Malaysia (really, nothing more than food-and-drug-agency
bureaucrats in all four countries) expressed their own support for higher
levels of this toxin in our drinks and foods. With such concerted support,
the Chairman approved this change.
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- Aftermath
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- Interestingly enough, at the end of the day's
meeting, NHF's strong and divergent remarks attracted the attention of
one scientist who approached me to discuss further our organization and
positions on these various issues. Other valuable contacts were made as
well.
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- Moreover, although NHF came to this meeting
primarily to address the artificial-sweetener issues, we may have our greatest
impact in helping to remove aluminum from the food-additive list - not
at this meeting, but sometime during the next one or two sessions. In the
last CCFA meeting, the Chairman himself - as well as the Committee too
- already expressed interest in transitioning food additives away from
aluminum-containing ingredients by 2010; but this fact was ignored by the
US-led Electronic Working Group that reported to this 40th session. Strangely
enough, the Chairman and NHF have been the only ones to push on this issue
during this meeting. Time will tell. We can only continue to strive for
the best possible outcome.
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- Reference
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- 1 In such cases, Codex participants push application
of the precautionary principle, which urges that in case of doubt, or mixed
results, one should avoid approving a substance for use.
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- For further information on Codex , please visit the
NHF website (Codex) :
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- http://www.thenhf.com/codex.html
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- NHF Codex Book - https://www.thenhf.com/codex/buy_codex_book.html
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- NHF Codex Overview (May be used as an article or printed
- as a handout to educate on Codex) - <http://www.thenhf.com/codex/codex_handout.pdf>
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- http://www.thenhf.com/press_releases/pr_28_apr_2008.html
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- Click here for the permanent link to this press release,
use this link to inform others.
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- National Health Federation: Established in 1955, the
National Health Federation is a consumer-education, health-freedom organization
working to protect individuals' rights to choose to consume healthy food,
take supplements and use alternative therapies without unnecessary government
restrictions. The NHF is the only such organization with recognized observer-delegate
status at Codex meetings. <<http://www.thenhf.com/>http://www.thenhf.com/><http://www.thenhf.com>www.thenhf.com
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- **************************************
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- More information on these sweeteners can be found on
<http://www.mpwhi.com>www.mpwhi.com, <http://www.dorway.com>www.dorway.com
and <http://www.wnho.net>www.wnho.net Aspartame Toxicity Center,
<http://www.holisticmed.com/aspartame>www.holisticmed.com/aspartame
- Dr. Betty Martini, D.Hum, Founder
- Mission Possible International
- 9270 River Club Parkway
- Duluth, Georgia 30097
- 770 242-2599
- <mailto:bettym19@mindspring.com>bettym19@mindspring.com
- Aspartame Information List, <http://www.mpwhi.com>www.mpwhi.com,
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