Docket 2002P-0317From: Dieterich, Lauren [ldieterich@kellencompany.com] Sent: Thursday, October 28, 2004 10:39 AM To: 'fdadockets@oc.fda.gov' Subject: Docket 2002P-0317 October 28, 2004 Division of Dockets Management Food and Drug Administration Dept. HHS RE: Docket Number 02P-0317 The editorial, "Aspartame and its effects on Health: The sweetener has been demonized unfairly in sections of the press and several websites," was published in the October 2, 2004, British Medical Journal, Volume 329, pp. 755-756. We have attached this article in a .pdf file for your convenience. The authors conclude: "Evidence does not support links between aspartame and cancer, hair loss, depression, dementia, behavioral disturbances or any of the other conditions appearing in websites. Agencies such as the Food Standards Agency, European Food Standards Authority, and the Food and Drug Administration have a duty to monitor relations between foodstuffs and health and to commission research when reasonable doubt emerges. Aspartame's safety was convincing to the European Scientific Committee on Food in 1988, but proving negatives is difficult, and it is even harder to persuade vocal sectors of the public whose opinions are fuelled more by anecdote than by evidence. The Food Standards Agency takes public concerns very seriously and thus pressed the European Scientific Committee on Food to conduct a further review, encompassing over 500 reports, in 2002. It concluded from biochemical, clinical, and behavioral research that the acceptable daily intake of 40 mg/kg/day of aspartame remained entirely safe-except for people with phenylketonuria." Respectfully submitted, Lyn O'Brien Nabors Executive Vice President Calorie Control Council <>