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 fact that aspartame - also known as "Nutrasweet" - has been found to be a causative agent for brain tumors and that 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 deadly brain tumor agent: DKP (diketopiperazine).

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

It is a matter of documented record that for sixteen years, FDA tried to resist pressure to approve aspartame because of various studies that linked 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 initial lab testing, 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, Board of Directors of G.D. Searle recruited Rumsfeld to head up company as CEO. Three years later, political wheels turned and FDA reversed its longstanding opposition to aspartame and approved its sale.

Since then, 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 consumer complaints filed with 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 market place, but little has come of her efforts.