Another Consumer Group Calls for Investigation Into Splenda Advertising

Another consumer advocacy group is now calling for an investigation into misleading advertising by Johnson & Johnson’ s McNeil Nutritionals LLC for its sweetener sucralose– better known to consumers as Splenda."

Generation Green—a non-profit advocacy group comprised of parents and other concerned citizens who favor policies "that will allow children to grow up protected from exposure to toxins—wrote a letter to California’s Attorney General California’s Attorney General Bill Lockyer, claiming that Spenda "advertising misleads consumers into believing that Splenda is a natural product, made from sugar.  In fact, Johnson & Johnson does not even list sugar as an ingredient in Splenda."

The letter– which follows a complaint from two other California consumer groups (which I wrote about recently)—notes that "Johnson & Johnson encourages consumer confusion" and that images of children "convey the mesage that Splenda is a better, more natural product for children than other artificial sweeteners…."

Time and time again, I hear people thinking that Splenda is safe: Read how Generation Green’s letter describes the process to make the artificial sweetener:

  "The facts are these:

*Splenda is a chemically created product in which sugar molecules are
  manipulated through chlorination and other processes so as to be
  completely unrecognizable as sugar.

  "Following chlorination, a further chemical process is applied using
  phosgene, a poisonous gas described by the Centers for Disease Control
  s a major industrial chemical used to make plastics and pesticides.

  "The Splenda label does not and cannot list sugar as an ingredient, as
  sugar is not recognizable in the final product."

As for people’s recent comments about chlorine, I’ll let toxicologist Janet Starr Hull enlighten you,

"Any animal that eats chlorine (especially on a regular basis) is at risk of cancer. The Merk Manuel and OSHA 40 SARA 120 Hazardous Waste Handbook states that chlorine is a carcinogen and emergency procedures should be taken when exposed via swallowing, inhaling,
or through the skin."

Please, I urge those of you, who eat foods sweetened with Splenda to learn more about it before you continue to consume more of this chemcial substance. I’ve certainly learned enough to never want to eat foods containing it.