Had any Nutrasweet lately? If you have, you might like to know that a class action lawsuit is in the works against Nutrasweet manufacturer G.D. Searle.

A consumer rights advocacy group calling itself "Mission Possible" is leading this potentially explosive litigation. In their lawsuit they plan to expose evidence pointing to the fact that aspartame - also known as "Nutrasweet" - has been found to be a causative agent for brain tumors and that the FDA has known of these risks for years.

Mission Possible has amassed an impressive array of studies and reports proving that aspartame is not a bonafide food additive but a neurotoxic drug that spins off the deadly brain tumor agent: DKP (diketopiperazine).

The founder of Mission Possible, Betty Martini, explained the situation as follows: "Neither congressional hearings nor repeated petitions calling for a ban have stopped aspartame manufacturers from exposing the public to this sweet poison. In fact, aspartame producers are reporting increased sales and boasting the market place addition of Neotame, a new aspartame product."

It is a matter of documented record that for sixteen years, the FDA tried to resist pressure to approve aspartame because of various studies that linked the artificial sweetener to a variety of adverse reactions. Among those reactions were brain tumors that occurred in animals that ingested aspartame.

In 1977, FDA investigator Jerome Bressler discovered that Searle had intentionally destroyed evidence of a large number of laboratory animals that had died from ingesting aspartame. Bressler later met with doctors H.J. Roberts, MD and Russell Blaylock, MD to brief them on his findings.

For quite a long period of time during the initial lab testing, the fate of aspartame was uncertain. The FDA had been resisting approval based on mounting evidence that aspartame was toxic.

Then - enter Donald Rumsfeld (yes, THE Donald Rumsfeld). In 1978, the Board of Directors of G.D. Searle recruited Rumsfeld to head up the company as CEO. Three years later, political wheels turned and the FDA reversed its longstanding opposition to aspartame and approved its sale.

Since then, the FDA has received thousands of complaints and has amassed a list of no less than 92 symptoms of aspartame poisoning. This list includes neurological problems, seizures, vision loss, blindness, headaches, cardiovascular problems, and death.

Of all the consumer complaints filed with the FDA each year, a whopping eighty percent of those complaints have to do with adverse reactions to Nutrasweet-related products. Eighty percent!

Fortunately for all of us, Martini has been collecting data about this controversy since 1992. She has tried executive and administrative remedies to have aspartame removed from the market place, but little has come of her efforts.

She is now of the opinion that: "Litigation is the only way to spare consumers from the misery of aspartame poisoning." Her reasoning is supported by the outcome of recent product liability controversies such as the now famous Vioxx fiasco. In the case of Vioxx, it had become clear to many observers that the FDA wasn't going to be part of the solution - at least not soon. It finally took a well-orchestrated class action lawsuit to get everyone's attention and pressure the agency into taking corrective action.

To back up these allegations about Nutrasweet, there's a large body of evidence in Mission Possible's possession that accurately documents the history of aspartame from its initial discovery to its politically-engineered approval. That a product with so many known health risks continues to be allowed in over 9000 commonly consumed foods, beverages and medical products, is, well, food for some very disturbing thought.

Over the years it has been demonstrated that aspartame is a neurotoxic agent and that it interacts with other drugs and vaccinations in unexpected, harmful ways. For example, in one set of discovered documents, Searle conducted Nutrasweet experiments in six third world countries (1983-1984). During that period, some of the subjects who were given Nutrasweet developed brain tumors and others started to have seizures.

The bottom line is that large numbers of people who were asked to consume Nutrasweet in early Searle studies came down with brain and nervous disorders. The damaging results from these studies were statistically significant and yet, for reasons that are now becoming obvious, the FDA was not advised.

In 1999, an aspartame study was done by Dr. Peter Nunn at King's College in England. Based on the results, Dr. Nunn concluded that: "