We have bills to ban Aspartame in both houses in Honolulu; the one in the Senate, SB576, sponsored by Senator Kalani English, has 13 more cosponsors, or 56% of the 25 member Hawaii Senate.
There is also a Hawaii Senate Resolution sponsored by Senator Suzanne Chun Oakland which directly requests the as-yet-unappointed new FDA Commissioner as well as Health and Human Services Secretary-designee, Tom Daschle, to rescind the approval for aspartame. Because we have concentrated on the Senate and are in good shape there at the moment, I believe, where we must concentrate is the Hawaii House Health Committee.
The corporate lobbyists and retail merchants' association will be fierce opponents of this legislation and will fight it tooth and nail, like bringing in really sick diabetics to testify, who cry around about what they would have to do to sweeten their food with an artificial sweetener, neurotoxin and carcinogen like aspartame?
Count on this, for sure: the world's largest Aspartame manufacturer, Ajinomoto, will bring in a bunch of very expensive high power lobbying muscle, like they did in New Mexico when an almost identical Senate Bill to ban aspartame was eviscerated by lobbyists and corporate attorneys for the manufacturers.
Thus, we need real grassroots connections in Hawaii. People who can give up an hour or two to send emails to Hawaii lawmakers and asking friends and family there to get involved, please do, so the corporate lobbyists for the world's largest food poisoner won't stop this important consumer protection bill.
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