Guest Blog: Support the NM Bill to Ban Aspartame

Guest Blog by Stephen Fox:
The House bill for New Mexico to ban Aspartame was turned in; it has a number now, House Bill 391, with three committee assignments: Consumer and Public Affairs; Business and Industry, and Judiciary.

The bill is to ban the sale of Aspartame in New Mexico. This is a neurotoxic artificial sweetener that metabolizes as methanol and formaldehyde and even one more brain tumor causing agent, diketopiperazine. Its approval was forced through the FDA in 1981 by then CEO of G.D. Searle, Donald Rumsfeld, for vast personal gain, despite the FDA having turned down the approval for 15 prior years.

This broad base of support in the New Mexico House of Representatives proves that there is deep concern among legislators for the failures of the USA FDA to recognize the harm done by Aspartame to rescind FDA approval; therefore, the legislators are choosing to act at the state level in order to protect the health of all New Mexicans from further damage caused by this neurotoxic carcinogen, presently found in 6000 USA food products including diet sodas, sugarless gum, low fat yogurt and Equal (table sweetener), as well as more than 500 medications, including children's vitamins and aspirin.

These 19 Representatives have signed HB391:
Irvin Harrison (Sponsor, Vice Chair, Consumer and Public Affairs Committee)
W. Ken Martinez (Majority Leader New Mexico House of Representatives)
Henry Kiki Saavedra (Chairman, House Appropriations Committee)
Gail Chasey (Chair, House Consumer and Public Affairs Committee)
Debbie Rodella (Chair, House Business and Industry Committee)
Roger Madalena (Chair, Energy and Natural Resources)
Dan Silva (Chair, House Transportation Committee)
Jose Campos (Chair, Voters and Elections)
Miguel Garcia (Chair, Labor and Human Resources)
Nick Salazar (Chair, Rules and Order of Business; Vice Chair,Health and Government Affairs)
Bobby Gonzales (Vice Chair, Taxation and Revenue)
Patricia Lundstrom (Vice Chair, Transportation)
Ray Begaye (Vice Chair, Agriculture and Water Resources)
Joni Gutierrez (Member, Appropriations and Finance)
Elias Barela (Vice Chair, Enrolling and Engrossing)
Dr. Danice Picraux (Vice Chair, Finance and Appropriations)
Jim Trujillo (Vice Chair, Energy and Natural Resources)
Tom Swisstack (Member, Judiciary)
Andrew Barreras (Member, Business and Industry)

The Committee Assignments (3) are challenging; following are lists identifying the members of which committees we should be concentrating our efforts on to convince. Those wanting to help this effort could send quick 2 sentence notes of thanks and appreciation to these members above. Here are their email addresses, and if they don't do email, I have listed their Capitol Telephone numbers.  Letters to Governor Richardson and to Lt. Governor Denish are also helpful; they have email forms at their respective websites.

Irvin Harrison (irv4u@cnetco.com)
Ken Martinez (mlo1@7cities.net)
Henry Saavedra, in care of Buffie.Saavedra@state.nm.us
Gail Chasey gailchasey@msn.com
Roger Madalena: 505 986-4417
Debbie.Rodella@nmlegis.gov
Jose Campos josephs@plateautel.net
Miguel Garcia  Miguel.garcia@nmlegis.gov
Nick Salazar  nlsalazar@lanl.gov
plundstrom@nwnmcog.com
Danice.picraux@nmlegis.gov
Joni Gutierrez jonig@zianet.com
Dan Silva (505) 986-4425
ray.begaye@nmlegis.gov
danice.picraux@nmlegis.gov
jimtrujillo@msn.com
Tom Swisstack tswiss1@msn.com
elias@barelalaw.com
ajbarreras4staterep@hotmail.com

Thanks for helping so much, thus far....I think the real battle is going to be in the committees where the corporate lobbyists will concentrate on trying to slow down, subvert, and defeat this vital, long overdue legislation entirely. Some members I don't list because they have already informed me
that they will vote against it, so we won't waste effort on opponents: there is plenty to do to convince the fence-sitters!

Key Committee members are going to be:

House Consumer and Public Affairs:
antonio@moejustice.com Antonio Maestas
alpark.nm@gmail.com Al Park, also Chairman of House Judiciary
noralee@cableone.net Nora Espinosa, Republican from Roswell
Dub Williams (505 986-4454)

Business and Industry:
George Hanosh (Vice Chair) 505 986-4243
Justine Fox Young (Albuquerque Republican) jfoxyoung@gmail.com
Tom Garcia (ocate@hotmail.com)
Dona Irwin (donagale@zianet.com)
Tom Taylor (tom@tomtaylor.net) House Republican Leader
Gloria Vaughn Alamogordo Republican 986-4453
Richard Vigil rrvigil@plateautel.net

House Judiciary: Most emails should be sent to Al Park, Joe Cervantes,Dan Foley, Bill Rehm, Mimi Stewart, Eric Youngberg, and Teresa Zanetti

Al Park, Chair Democrat (alpark.nm@gmail.com)
Joseph Cervantes, Vice Chair Democrat (cervanteslaw@zianet.com)
Elias Barela, Democrat (elias@barelalaw.com)
Gail Chasey, Democrat gailchasey@msn.com
Daniel R. Foley, Republican (Arch conservative, Minority Whip)
daniel.foley@nmlegis.gov

Antonio "Moe" Maestas, Democrat antonio@moejustice.com
W. Ken Martinez, Democrat mlo1@7cities.net
William "Bill" R. Rehm, Republican bill.rehm@comcast.net
Mimi Stewart, Democrat mstewart@osogrande.com
Thomas E. Swisstack, Democrat tswiss1@msn.com
Gloria C. Vaughn, Republican 505 986-4453
Eric A. Youngberg, Republican eric_youngberg@msn.com
Teresa A. Zanetti, Republican electzanetti@comcast.net

I appreciate your immediate attention to these requests for correspondence in favor of banning aspartame: they will make the difference. In all cases, even with telephoning, always ask for a response in writing which will state their position. This will be invaluable in assesing where we stand, i.e., in counting the votes....

If you have any questions, please let me know.

Respectfully,
Stephen Fox
stephen@santafefineart.com
Santa Fe, NM 87501
505-983-2002

Editor's Note: This is a Guest Blog by Stephen Fox. If you'd like to submit a post for possible publication as a Guest Blog, please contact me by clicking on the Email Me link on the upper left-hand corner of our main page. Guest Blogs provide an opportunity for readers to express their opinions on issues of interest to them and don't necessarily reflect the views of DFNM or myself.