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Legislators consider aspartame ban
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| Contributor | Gerald Farinas |
| Last Edited | Gerald Farinas Feb 10, 2008 11:56am |
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| Category | News |
| Media | Newspaper - Honolulu Advertiser |
| News Date | Sunday, February 10, 2008 05:00:00 PM UTC0:0 |
| Description | A set of bills before the state Legislature would ban aspartame — known also by brand names NutraSweet and Equal — as soon as Jan. 1.
House Bill 2680 is up for a vote in the Health Committee on Wednesday, giving supporters of the ban more time to prove why Hawai'i should become the first state to ban a federally approved product, a move lawmakers are unlikely to make without strong evidence of a public health risk.
Those who want aspartame taken out of Hawai'i's food supply call it a neurotoxin, a carcinogen and the source of headaches, heart spasms and a host of other ills.
"We would stop many of the neurological problems that people have today. We'd stop a lot of the cancers that are happening today. We would stop a lot of fatalities that are occurring today," said ban supporter Jade Brujell of Moloka'i.
Aspartame, which was introduced in 1981, is found in more than 6,000 products from chewing gum to some medications, and is used by more than 200 million people worldwide, according to state statistics.
The bill drew testimony from all over the country.
New Mexico state Sen. Gerald Ortiz y Pino, who had failed to get a similar bill passed in his state, submitted written testimony that blamed "corporate lobbyists' theories of federal pre-emption" for killing similar bills he had submitted in 2006 and 2007.
The bill was opposed by the Grocery Manufacturers Association, the American Beverage Association and the Retail Merchants of Hawai'i. |
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