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Many Doctors
Oppose this regulation.
Do you oppose toxic chemicals in beds? Vote and Comment Here
Also, if
you have gotten sick from a flameproof mattress we would like to know.
As of July 1 2007 all
mattresses nationwide, including crib, must be flameproof and contain
toxic chemicals. Please help get the word out.
Beware of Organic or other mattresses that claim they use no chemicals.
There are no labeling requirements. There are no chemical free systems that will pass
the severe open flame test, not even wool, they are all toxic. Your only
safe choice is a bare waterbed or a prescription mattress. See Organics Burn
We're Making News, Toxic vs. Toxin-Free
Prescription Mattresses
TV stations CBS, NBC, ABC, FOX, Magazines, and Newspapers across the
country have done news stories on toxic beds, and more are coming:
"Many
manufacturers are predicting a backlash once consumers start to
investigate what's really lying under their sheets with them."
"Ironically, mattress workers are coming forward and admitting they
are getting sick simply handling the new chemically-laden materials"
Even before the July 1 2007 deadline most new mattresses sold nationwide,
and all mattresses sold in California since 1-1-05 have already contained
toxic chemicals to meet the new law. There are no labeling
requirements of the chemicals in beds. All mattress makers will claim
they use no chemicals, but the CPSC documents prove otherwise. Click here to
see the CPSC table of chemicals used, and here
to see their table of the amount of poisons absorbed daily from
flameproof mattresses. If you want a clean bed we recommend a bare
waterbed or our sponsors www.PrescriptionBeds.com and www.Strobel.com. Fortunately, the law
allows Doctors including Chiropractors to prescribe toxin free beds.
Prescriptions are easy, save you the sales tax, make the mattress set tax
deductible, and you can use your health savings account.
In their Jan-06 Risk Assessment
the CPSC proves the average adult will absorb a daily dose of .802 mg
of Antimony (Arsenic), .081 mg Boric Acid (Roach Killer), and .073 mg DBDPO (Deca) from
flame proof mattresses, every night. Plus they say five year old
children will absorb .5 mg Antimony every night, this is 63 times more
poison than the EPA says is safe. Younger children were not studied.
 (It's True! See
CPSC Table 16)
All three are acute poisons and two cause cancer. (Most people do not
want themselves or their children to absorb any amount of poisons from
their mattresses every day, to avoid the one in 1.111 million risk of
dying in a mattress fire.)
CPSC
Risk Assessment of Flameproof Mattresses, see the facts firsthand:
Short version, 21 selected pages
highlighted. The highlighted lines are a quick read.
Full version, 77 pages Bookmarked
Highlighted, Searchable
Plus,
Children under age five excluded from risk assessment. The CPSC
assumes all these children will be protected by a vinyl sheet over their
mattresses due to bedwetting problems, and that this will protect them
from exposure to these known acutely toxic chemicals. There are no
labeling requirements. Parents will never know their new mattresses
contain toxic chemicals.
Unlike
other flame retardants that we initially think are non-toxic like
Asbestos PCB's and PBDE's, and later find them harmful, we already know
these are acutely toxic and cancer causing.
Antimony:
Quote
from College Chemistry Textbook: “Antimony resembles Arsenic very
closely; the difference
in its behavior being almost entirely accounted for by the fact that
antimony is slightly more metallic.” This helps explain why it is so
poisonous. Quotes from ATSDR a division of the CDC on Antimony: “An
increase in the number of spontaneous abortions, disturbances in
menstruation, failure to conceive, May cause heart to beat irregularly or
stop. … Chronic Exposure: Prolonged or repeated exposure may damage the
liver and the heart muscle." “In long-term studies, animals that
breathed very low levels of antimony had eye irritation, hair loss, lung
damage, and heart problems. Problems with fertility were also noted.”
"Two studies reported lung tumors in rats exposed to relatively low
levels of antimony trioxide." Antimony tends to accumulate in the
liver and gastrointestinal tract.” The CDC cannot determine a safe level
of Antimony exposure because: “At the lowest exposure levels tested, the
adversity of the effects was considered to be serious.” On cancer risks
of Antimony even the CPSC admits: “The cancer effects are cumulative.
Every exposure contributes to the overall lifetime risk of developing
cancer.”
Boric
Acid, also used as Roach Killer, is a known reproductive and
developmental toxin, a known respiratory irritant, Demonstrated injury
to the gonads and to the developing fetus. high prenatal mortality,
Neonatal children are unusually susceptible. There are already 6,463 U.S.
cases of Boric Acid poisoning each year. One human exposure study showed
reduced sperm counts and reduced sexual activity in humans.
DBDPO, Deca, is in
the family of PBDE’s, is known to bioaccumulate, is linked to cancer, and
groups are trying to get it banned.
The
CPSC has completed extraction studies that show the percentage of FR
chemicals contained in various mattress flame barriers. (See CPSC Table 1,
It shows 7 of 13 barriers contain Antimony, and 5 of 13 contain Boric
Acid) They have also completed leaching and migration studies that
prove these chemical reach the surface of our mattresses through the
sheets, to be absorbed by our bodies, and base the above poison
absorptions calculations on this data.
See
the rest of the short version of the story by clicking here.
See
the whole story by clicking here: Includes TERA comments and CPSC
responses, omissions, errors, CPSC responses to public comments, and
Conclusions.
CPSC
Risk Assessment of Flameproof Mattresses, see the facts firsthand:
Short version, 21 selected pages
highlighted. The highlighted lines are a quick read.
Full version, 77 pages Bookmarked
Highlighted, Searchable
Overview:
Printer friendly version
click here
A new
law already effective in California, and soon to be enacted nationwide by
the Consumer Products Safety Commission (CPSC) requires mattresses to
resist ignition from open flames, even though a 1973 federal law already
requires all mattresses to resist ignition from burning cigarettes, and
mattress fires have already declined by 68%. Since it requires toxic
chemicals in the surface of all new mattresses to meet the new law, we
think the risks of the new law outweigh the benefits.
Most
people will think, it can't be that bad, it is probably OK. Please
consider the following:
The
CPSC hopes to save up to 270 lives annually after ten or more years,
after all existing mattresses are replaced. This seems overly optimistic
and the real number saved can be calculated to only 21 using the CPSC's
own data.
With 300 million people in the United States unknowingly taking the risk
of sleeping in toxic chemicals, they avoid the one in one million risk of
dying in a mattress fire. Using the 21 saved number the risk is one
in fourteen million. By comparison annual US deaths are 6,091 as a
pedestrian, 16,337 as a car occupant, and 17,550 from accidental
poisoning by and exposure to noxious substances. Even before the new law,
your risk of dying from toxic chemicals, is greater than your risk of
dying in a car accident. See Odds of Dying.
There
is an entire specialty of real medicine that treats people poisoned by
the toxic chemicals in our modern environment, real M.D.'s taught by top
schools such as Harvard Medical School. These Doctors see first hand the
pain, suffering, and death of these people. All of these Doctors
oppose this law.
Every
life is important and it is hard to argue with fire safety. However, if
this law kills even one more than it saves, it is clearly wrong. It
has the potential to kill millions of people. If only 15% of our
mattresses prove toxic -- 45 Million people will die.
- The chemicals used to flameproof mattresses have never been
studied for human exposure risk in this application. (Except now the
CPSC has released a limited study.)
- We know almost all the chemicals to flameproof
mattresses are acutely toxic and many also cause
cancer.
- The science of Toxicology uses high-dose
short-term exposure on various animals to predict the effect of
low-dose long-term exposure on humans. This is exactly the risk in
mattresses, close chronic exposure eight hour per day for the
rest of our and our children's lives.
- The developing fetus and young child is
particularly vulnerable to certain environmental toxins. Over the
past three decades, researchers have found that remarkably low-level
exposures to these toxins are linked with less overt
symptoms of toxicity—intellectual impairments, behavioral problems,
spontaneous abortions, or preterm births.
- Antimony Trioxide is the most commonly used flame
retardant in mattresses to meet the new law. Antimony is a heavy
metal like Lead with similar toxic effects. Antimony is proven to
leach from mattresses and linked to heart damage, cancer, and SIDS.
- Boric Acid, also a roach killer, is commonly used
as a flame retardant in mattresses to meet the new law. It is known
to attack the developing fetus and testicles as it primary targets.
In addition to death, birth defects, infertility, and sterility,
studies show overexposure reduces sexual activity in humans.
- Children could be poisoned from sucking
on a Boric Acid mattress. There are 6,463 cases of Boric Acid
Poisoning in the US each year.
- Formaldehyde, Bromine, and other dangerous
chemicals are also used in many systems. It is difficult if not
impossible to find the truth. Even mattress manufacturers usually don't
know which chemicals are present in their flame barrier systems. We
can't find any, but even if safe systems exist, all mattresses
must be safe or we will eventually harm or kill a percentage of
our people. If 33% prove toxic, 100 Million people are harmed. If
only 1% prove toxic, it is still 3 Million people harmed or killed.
- We should learn from our toxic legacies of the
past. We have made previous mistakes with flame retardants such as
PCB's banned in the 70's, Tris, Asbestos, and now PBDE's are being
found in peoples bodies and women's breast milk in alarming and
growing amounts.
- The chemical industry estimates we save up to 960
people per year with the 1.2 Billion pounds of flame retardants the
US uses annually. Now we will be required to sleep in them too. We
have already killed
300,000 people, and continue to kill 10,000 annually, with Asbestos
alone.
- Consumers will be forced to pay an average of
$100 more for every new mattress purchased to meet this law.
- The innerspring mattress industry through their
trade association ISPA went to the CPSC and asked for this law. It seems clear it
benefits the large companies by restraining competition, forcing the
smaller companies out of business, and raising prices, revenue, and
profits.
- Even the man who started and wrote this law in
California, Whitney
Davis, is now having second thoughts: "The Problem:
the only chemicals they can use to achieve compliance are listed as
toxic to humans by the EPA.” and "You don't know until 10
years down the road and there's a problem," he said.
"We feel responsible."
We
have made progress with many Doctors and people opposing this law. The
CPSC has received over 500 public comments opposing the law when they
would normally only receive about 20 comments from interested parties on
most proposals.
We
have gotten news
for the issue from the Washington Post, San Francisco Chronicle, and many
other newspapers across the country, as well as TV news from network
affiliates.
Please Help. Please vote here. Email the CPSC. Email and call your legislators. Email and tell your friends.
Email, write, and call your local news media. It is never to late to try
to stop this law and potentially save millions of people.
Notice:
The statements and questions contained in this website are not intended
to convey allegations regarding any particular company, person, or
association. Readers should conduct their own investigation of a company
or association or person to ascertain the particular policies, practices,
and motivations of that entity. I have reported what I believe to be true
and correct to the best of my knowledge and opinion at the time of its
writing in a free speech effort to avert a public health disaster.
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