the first time aspartame went before the FDA(1980), the FDA shot …
the first time aspartame went before the FDA(1980), the FDA shot it down because three independent scientists confirmed that it “might induce brain tumors.” On January 21, 1981, the day after Ronald Reagan’s inauguration, they re-applied to the FDA for approval to use aspartame. Reagan’s new FDA commissioner, Arthur Hayes Hull, Jr., appointed a 5-person Commission to review the use of aspartame. after the initial five members voted 3-2 to uphold the ban Hull added 6th member to the review board and the vote became deadlocked. He then personally broke the tie in aspartames favor. and who might you think was the CEO of G.D. Searle & Company at this time?(the company trying to get aspartame approved) well it was none other than Donald Rumsfeld, that’s right Bush’s former secretary of defense, the guy who disbanded the Iraqi military and is basically responsible for the US having to police all of Iraq.