Conscious Choice: Splenda Debate

August 2005 | Choice Feedback

Splenda Debate

I am writing in regards to Rebecca Ephraim’s June 2005 column, “Sugarcoating Splenda.” Ephraim’s column misinforms readers with unsubstantiated claims and damaging distortions about the safety of Splenda Brand Sweetener.

Ephraim is correct when stating that health and safety have little or nothing to do with the Sugar Association’s elaborate public relations campaign and lawsuit against the Splenda brand. She is right — “they’re worried about their livelihoods.”

Since its introduction over a decade ago, millions of people have safely enjoyed products made with sucralose, the sweetening ingredient in Splenda brand products. It is one of the most tested food ingredients ever introduced and its safety has been confirmed by regulatory authorities in more than 80 countries worldwide. An extensive database of scientific research of over 100 studies conducted over a period of 20 years demonstrates that sucralose has no harmful effects and is safe for everyone, including people with diabetes, children and pregnant women.

Splenda brand products provide safe options for consumers who want to manage, and lower, their sugar intake. We stand confidently behind our product and its exemplary safety record. We recommend that consumers look to qualified sources of information about our brand, starting with www.splenda.com and www.splendatruth.com.

— Monica Neufang, Director of Communications, McNeil Nutritionals, LLC

Non-Chlorine Pools

I HAVE an idea to offer Michelle Smith, who wrote to inquire about alternatives to chlorine use in swimming pools. A couple of years ago I traveled in Australia and was pleasantly surprised to learn that the Australians fill their swimming pools with salt water. How sensible of them! It works just fine for the ocean, so why not in swimming pools. There is also the added benefit of increased buoyancy in salt water. I hope that this is useful.

— Claire Hall, Internet

Labor and Middle Class Under Attack

THE BUSH Administration and Congress have declared war on the middle class, on our seniors, on our nation’s children, and especially on those struggling in poverty, and the American labor movement.

Under the Bush economy, 8 million Americans are out of work, and another 2 million have given up trying.

Nearly 36 million Americans are living in poverty, and one-third of those in poverty are children. Since Bush took office, the number of Americans without health insurance has climbed to 45 million. The shamefully low minimum wage of $5.15 an hour continues to force millions into poverty, and keeps millions more one paycheck away.

More and more families than ever are working three or four jobs just to make ends meet.

We are losing good middle-class jobs, as 3 million building manufacturing jobs have been lost since Bush took office — more than in the last 22 years combined. Now white-collar and high-tech jobs are being sent overseas, too. And for those still able to find work, Bush’s overtime rule exempted 6 million working Americans from the right to overtime pay. The Bush Administration [has] destroyed collective bargaining for 250,000 federal employees.

The Employee Free Choice Act would go a long way to protect workers trying to form unions. When enacted, it will allow workers to form unions through a simple majority sign-up (also known as “card-check”), mandate first-contract arbitration if necessary to reach an agreement, and provide real penalties for employers who violate the law.

On April 19, 2005, the Employee Free Choice Act was reintroduced as bipartisan legislation by U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) and U.S. Reps. George Miller (D-Calif.) and Peter King (R-N.Y.) in the House. Already, we have well over 200 co-sponsors in both chambers of Congress. Our goal is to increase bipartisan co-sponsorship in the Senate and achieve outright majority support in the House.

I can’t think of a single more important thing we can do together in this climate than to help workers organize unions, and close the gaps between the haves and the have-nots. Then we all have to take our own private rage that’s been eating at our stomachs since they stole the election in 2000 and turn it into a public fight for the future of our people and the soul of our nation.

— AFL-CIO Organizing Director Stewart Acuff at the Illinois State AFL-CIO Central Labor Council Conference in Findlay, Ill., June 14, 2005

Don’t Mess with Social Security

GEORGE W. Bush is not a neo-conservative. He surrounded himself with these termites in the hope that their agenda of dominance through power would be invaluable in the pursuit of his own prized goal: To help perpetuate a wealth-based aristocratic class of which he believes himself to be part.

His program, he assumes, could be achieved by favoring the powerful in all ways possible. And at every opportunity he has made decisions with that orientation. The proposed Social Security reform is receiving little public support and, if anyone wishes to know why, a good place to start is on the Century Foundation website and the article “The Point of No Return” in Commentaries.

Why is this project so important to the ultimate right-wing proponents? Could it be that privatizing Social Security, even partially, would create a massive amount of revenues for the controlling interests of insurance companies, investment dealers and other financial institutions that provide annuities, stocks and bonds, and charge unregulated commissions for these transactions? Additional revenues would accrue from costs such as safekeeping and administrative charges, bond spreads, new issues and the perennial stockbroker inducements to trade.

It is clear that this project is in reality a nefarious scam designed to enable the powerful to get richer on the backs of the deprived.

— Paul Forest, Colchester, Vt.

Rebuild Smart After Tsunami

MUCH ADO has been made about the tectonic origin of the recent tsunami that struck Indonesia and about deployment of electronic early-detection systems. And most of the coverage has been about the human tragedy and heroism, and the need for aid from the industrialized nations. I heard a brief report about this relatively untold story on NPR, and decided to dig it out for you.

“Healthy ecosystems can save lives,” said Isabelle Louis, director of the WWF Asia Pacific Program. “Places that had healthy coral reefs and intact mangroves, which act as natural buffers, were less badly hit by the tsunami than those where the reefs had been damaged and mangroves ripped out and replaced by prawn farms and poorly planned beachfront hotels.”

While WWF recognizes the immediate need for timber for emergency housing and workplace needs, we strongly advocate the harvesting of wood from responsibly managed forests. Indiscriminate logging could contribute toward other calamities in the future, such as landslides and flooding.

WWF has played an important role in the relief effort, and their participation with the recovery of that region should be among the priorities of aid nations. Read more at www.world wildlife.org/news/displayPR.cfm?prID=174 or www.worldwildlife.org/about/viewpoint/tsunami.cfm.

— Evan Craig, Outings Chair Sierra Club Woods & Wetlands Group illinois.sierraclub.org

Correction and Clarification

IN THE July Body Mind column, the street address was incorrectly listed for the Moksha Yoga Center. The correct address is 700 N. Carpenter St., Chicago. www.mokshayoga.com.

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