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COMMENTS: Over the past
50 years there has been a steady rise in the incidence of
children developing cancer and asthma. Logic and
common sense would suggest that such a trend would be the
result of changes in environmental factors that are now
affecting our children that were not present
previously. During this same 50 year period,
consumer product manufacturers have found production costs
can be substantially cut if natural materials are replaced
with petroleum based alternatives made from synthetic
chemicals. Although, this change has occurred in
nearly every aspect of human life from home construction
to food production to cosmetic ingredients, we need to
first research factors that are in closest proximity to
the child if investigating child related diseases.
One such product would be the bedding materials used by a
child. For example, some crib mattresses are constructed
of polyurethane foam enclosed in vinyl covers. |
These
plastic products are made by combining
highly toxic chemicals together to form the final
material. During the sleep process, the child's every
breath pulls in air that is literally inches away from the
petroleum chemical materials used in the manufacturing of
the bed itself. This process begins at birth and
continues day after day during the child's critical
development periods. With each breath, these
chemical molecules are pulled across the child's airways
and then transferred to the blood from deep within the
lungs. This process is repeated with each breath 365
nights a year. Now that it is widely accepted that
child cancer and asthma can be caused or worsened by some
petroleum chemical products, it is important to identify
to what extent various chemical emitting products in
bedding materials could be affecting a child's
health.
The paragraph below is the direct abstract
of a report addressing this issue and published in the
journal - Archives of Environmental Health, Jan/Feb, 2000.
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Respiratory Toxicity
of Mattress Emissions in Mice
SOURCE: Archives of Environmental Health,
55(1):38-43, 2000
"Groups of male
Swiss-Webster mice breathed emissions of several brands of crib
mattresses for two 1-hr periods. The authors used a computerized
version of ASTM-E-981 test method to monitor respiratory frequency,
pattern, and airflow velocity and to diagnose abnormalities when statistically
significant changes appeared. The emissions of four mattresses
caused various combinations of upper-airways irritation (i.e., sensory
irritation, lower-airways irritation (pulmonary irritation), and
decreases in mid-expiratory airflow velocity. At the peak effect,
a traditional mattress (wire springs with fiber padding) caused sensory
irritation in 57% of breaths, pulmonary irritation in 23% of breaths,
and airflow decrease in 11% of breaths. All mattresses caused
pulmonary irritation, as shown by 17-23% of breaths at peak. The
largest airflow decrease (i.e., affecting 26% of the breaths occurred
with a polyurethane foam pad covered with vinyl. Sham exposures
produced less than 6% sensory irritation, pulmonary irritation, or airflow
limitation. Organic cotton padding caused very different effects,
evidenced by increases in both respiratory rate and tidal volume.
The authors used gas chromatography/mass spectrometry to identify
respiratory irritants (e.g. styrene, isopropylbenzene, limonene) in the
emissions of one of the polyurethane foam mattresses. Some
mattresses emitted mixtures of volatile chemicals that had the potential
to cause respiratory-tract irritation and decrease airflow velocity in
mice.
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