The articles below tell the story. While the articles are copyrighted, News media are free to use and edit the articles to their liking. We only ask to be informed if you publish an article:

Article 1
A short 500 word version that tells the highlights of the story.

Article 2
A 1,000 word article with references.

Article 3
A 3,000 word article that tells more of the story including how the innerspring mattress industry ask for and supported the new California law and national regulation, and how it benefits them. Plus it tells the US Consumer Products Safety Commission side of the story, and how it will cost consumers 1.11 Billion dollars, and limit liability for mattress manufacturers. It tries to tell a balanced story and gives background information of the chemical risks and how we made toxic mistakes in the past.

Please see the facts first hand: Proof pages for media.pdf
This collection includes selected highlighted pages from the CPSC risk assessment that prove the chemicals really used in mattresses, that we will absorb toxins, that they excluded children under age five, the problems and omissions in the report and how their conclusions are invalid from a report designed to reach a preexisting conclusion. Plus there are Doctor comments and public comments from people who have gotten sick from flameproof mattress, and more.

 Here are some other links that may interest you:

Table of Chemicals in Beds
Pounds Poison in Beds
People Sick
Doctor & More Comments

Strobel's history of fighting the regulation since 2003
http://www.peopleforcleanbeds.org/fight_history.htm

Please see other news we have gotten in the past from the San Francisco to the Washington Post and more, at our link: Making News.

For questions or high-resolution photos please contact:

Mark Strobel
President, Strobel Technologies, www.Strobel.com,  www.PrescriptionBeds.com
Director, People For Clean Beds, www.PeopleForCleanBeds.org
3131 Industrial Parkway
Jeffersonville, IN 47130

Phone: 812-282-4388
Fax: 812-282-6528
Email: mark@strobel.com

Is it safe to sleep in Roach Killer powder? Is the benefit worth the risk?

The innerspring mattress industry went to the US Consumer Products Safety Commission (CPSC) and asked for, and strongly supports, this new law that mattresses resist ignition from open flames. The chemical industry also lobbies for this law. It is an example of government gone crazy with overregulation without an act of congress. It adds about $100 to the price of new mattresses. It makes no sense to expose 300 million people to even ‘low risk,’ to optimistically save 300 people from fire. We know the chemicals used to flameproof mattresses are very poisonous. A large amount of these chemicals are required to be concentrated at the surface of the mattress to pass an overly strict open flame test that has been called the toughest FR standard ever. No natural or synthetic fibers can pass this test without added chemicals. When asked about health risks, the CPSC responds, “we are already exposed to over one billion additional pounds of flame retardant chemicals every year.” Our exposure in mattresses is unlike any other. We have full body and breathing contact eight hours every day for the rest of our lives. These chemicals are also required in healthcare and crib mattresses. The CPSC is ignoring the warnings of their own health sciences division who says more study is needed, and is rushing this law through. These flameproof mattresses have never been studied for human exposure. These chemicals are already in millions of mattresses nationwide in anticipation of the new law.

The CPSC admits they have no exposure data and cannot do a quantitative risk analysis. Instead, they say they are doing a qualitative analysis, by relying on staff’s professional judgment. In other words, they are guessing. They say study will be ongoing, meaning they will test our entire population, and if they later find human damage, it is the responsibility of other government agencies to ban that specific chemical.

Boric Acid (yes, the Roach Killer), Formaldehyde, Melamine, Antimony Trioxide, Vinylidiene Chloride, Zink Borate, and Decabromodiphenyl Oxide (Brominated flame retardant now being found in women’s breast milk) are the main chemicals being used to flameproof mattresses. Many of these chemicals cause cancer. Some are known to be a reproductive and developmental toxin: high prenatal mortality, birth defects, reduced fertility, sterility. Liver, kidney, brain, and heart muscle damage are only some effects. Aside from inhalation absorption, some of these chemicals can kill from skin contact alone. See the whole story at www.PeopleForCleanBeds.org where you also can vote and leave comments. See the other side of the story at www.sleepproducts.org. As of 1-1-05, this law is already effective in California. The law will be enacted nationwide by the CPSC within the year unless our comments can stop it. Please send comments directly to the CPSC: email: cpsc-os@cpsc.gov, fax: 301-504-0127, mail: Office of the Secretary, Consumer Product Safety Commission, Washington, DC 20207–0001 Comments should be captioned ‘‘Mattress NPR.’’

If our government guesses correctly, that it is safe for everyone to sleep in these chemicals, we may save up to 300 people from fire. However, our exposure in mattresses is intimate and chronic. If they are wrong, and they have been wrong in the past, they could harm or kill up to 300 million people. All of us sleep on a mattress. The risk is huge. Hippocrates left us with the admonition: "First do no harm.”

Sincerely, Mark Strobel, Director, People for Clean Beds.org, 3131 Industrial Parkway, Jeffersonville IN 47130, Phone: 812-282-4388, Fax: 812-282-6528, Email: Mark@PeopleForCleanBeds.org  Web: www.PeopleForCleanBeds.org  Editors Note: Above story is 586 words, hope you can use it. We hope you do a feature, or at least a small mention. See the short story, a 10 minute read, by clicking here. Our website has much more information, links to the law, CPSC, doctor quotes, EPA and CDC warnings on these chemicals, MSDS’s, opponent and proponent contacts, and references links to where you can verify all our statements.