>difficult to have enough data to point to a conclusion so unambiguously as to be obvious You are right, but that also cuts both ways, which is why we rely on

>difficult to have enough data to point to a conclusion so unambiguously as to be obvious You are right, but that also cuts both ways, which is why we rely on consensus. And the consensus of the international scientific community (not just the FDA or any such organization by itself) is that artificial sweeteners are safe. You are also right that CoI is not always a black-and-white issue, but that doesn't mean suspicions should be withheld from regulatory bodies and the publishing journal(s). Writing an OpEd on a personal webpage is not the most effective means to expose CoI, and, more importantly, such articles do not immediately overrule all consensus. If you really believe that the majority of studies involving the safety of artificial sweeteners are wrong, the best course of action is to demonstrate it empirically by duplicating the experiments and coming up with different data. Put together a reasonable paper, and other researchers will take note of it-- even if you believe the conspiracy theory that all major journals are puppets of the food industry. Ultimately, the data will trump the politics.