RESEARCHERS CALL FOR FURTHER STUDIES AFTER IDENTIFYING A POSSIBLE LINK BETWEEN ASPARTAME AND BRAIN TUMORS
In the November 1996 issue of the Journal of Neuropathology and Experimental Neurology, John Olney, M.D. and his colleagues Nuri Farber, M.D., Edward Spitznagel, Ph.D. and Lee Robins, Ph.D, all from Washington University in St. Louis, report that brain tumor rates have risen in the United States over the past 17 years in two distinct phases.
"The first phase occurred in the mid l970's and might be explained primarily by improved diagnostic methods. The second phase occurred abruptly in the mid l980's, resulting in a 10 per cent higher rate of brain tumors which has persisted to the present. This increase also was associated with a shift from a lower to a higher grade of malignancy."