I’ve spent the last 30 years as an environmental engineer, but it wasn’t until I became a grandfather that I fully understood the extent to which industrial chemicals had invaded the American home.
My rude awakening came when my wife sent me to buy a crib mattress for our first grandchild. I was appalled by what I found; the crib mattresses were full of industrial chemicals. Because of my environmental engineering background, I knew how harmful these chemicals could be to a developing child.
No one sets out to make toxic baby mattresses; it just evolved that way. As just one example, nearly all baby mattresses are covered with polyvinyl chloride (PVC) to make them waterproof. Because PVC is rigid, manufacturers mix in a class of chemicals called phthalates to soften the PVC. When added to PVC, phthalates don’t stay put; they leach into the air, making children more vulnerable to asthma, reproductive harm and cancer. One short-sighted decision leads to another and, before you know it, you’ve got a very unhealthy baby mattress.
The good news is, Congress is considering legislation that requires chemical manufacturers to show that their products are safe before they end up in products. Called the Safe Chemicals Act in the Senate and the Toxic Chemicals Safety Act in the House, these proposals have the potential to improve Americans’ health and restore consumer trust in American businesses and products.
Now it is up to our elected officials to make sure these bills become law. Yet they will only succeed if we can all stand firm in the face of chemical industry lobbyists who will argue that more regulation will hurt small business. My story demonstrates that just the opposite is true.
Back at the baby store, I told the salesperson, “My grandfather slept on straw. I’ll have my grandchildren sleep on straw before I let them sleep on these mattresses. This is not progress.” That shopping trip six years ago spurred my sons and I to start our own business, Naturepedic. It took some work to find the right combination of materials and the right manufacturing process, but I’m proud to say that today we offer waterproof baby mattresses made with organic and non-toxic materials. Yes, you can make a baby mattress without toxic chemicals.
Today, businesses like mine are thriving thanks to rising consumer demand for non-toxic products. But there still is a problem: It’s hard for companies like Naturepedic to be fully certain which suppliers do and do not use toxic chemicals. Most of them do, whether they admit it or not. The blame rests squarely on our outdated system for regulating chemicals, the Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976 (TSCA). Under TSCA, chemical manufacturers don’t have to demonstrate that their products are safe for children, nor do they have to disclose all the ingredients.
This lack of transparency puts businesses like mine in a bind. We’re forced to foot the bill for what chemical manufacturers don’t provide, spending our own resources to independently assure safety.
By reforming TSCA, we can create a new marketplace where chemical safety information is easily available to all and businesses can make informed choices about what brands and materials to use, making it easier to avoid exposing workers and customers to harm.
I know from experience that once people realize that their kids’ beds, mattresses, toys and bottles may contain toxic chemicals, they start reading labels and put their trust in brands that can demonstrate safety. But not everyone can afford to act on this knowledge. Consider families living paycheck to paycheck that can’t always afford to buy the least toxic choice. Our next challenge is to turn frustrated consumers into vocal citizens who will support Congress in making non-toxic the norm, not a market niche.
I never expected to be a mattress maker. Honestly, this industry doesn’t have a great reputation. At the turn of the century, mattresses were frequently stuffed with garbage. It took individual states to enact laws that require mattress manufacturers to provide labels. Today, we need Congress to take action on an equally outrageous problem. My hope is that in 10 years our grandchildren will ask, “Really? They used to make crib mattresses with toxic chemicals?” And then, when toxic chemicals in crib mattresses are a thing of the past, I’ll be ready to finally retire and really enjoy my grandchildren.
Barry Cik is a Board Certified Environmental Engineer and founder of Naturepedic, an organic mattress company, based in Cleveland, Ohio.
Mattresses - CC license by Flickr user soundfromwayout
A step in the right direction
This is a very encouraging article, but it really illustrates how far we still have to go.
Earlier comments regarding the lack of "convincing evidence of adverse effects on humans," underscores the prevailing view in society (especially in business and government policy making) about the what the acceptable level of toxicity in products, in our food, or in our bodies should be.
Why is the discussion about what an acceptbale limit is, or what definitively adverse effects on humans are, rather than whether or not they should be there in the first place? It seems criminal to me that it is a foregone conclusion that we accept synthetic and persisent chemicals to exist in our bodies today, rather than proving that they are necessary in the first place. The burden of proof should be on manufacturers of products and chemicals to prove that synthetic chemicals have no effect on humans rather than be innocent until proven guilty.
Products like these, and the legislation discussed here is a step in the right direction, however it is a far cry from just how urgently we need policy makers to enforce, and businesses to embrace the precautionary principle.
For further reading, please see:
http://www.sfenvironment.org/our_policies/overview.html?ssi=14
Phthalates and human health
I would like to highlight this peer-reviewed journal article on phthalates, which shows "there is no convincing evidence of adverse effects on humans".
http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~db=all~content=a908974039~frm=t...
That is not to say there may be other advantages to using alternative types of mattress. I wish the author every success with his alternative mattresses and consumer choice and information can only be a good thing. However, phthalates in particular should not be a cause for concern.
And, no, I am not in the pay of any industry or US government agency.
Phthalates without adverse effects?
If phthalates do not have adverse effects, why were some types of phthalates banned in the U.S. for baby crib mattresses, toys and other childrens products? Why were they banned in Europe 10 years ago? Why are some hospitals switching to non-PVC tubing for preemies? "No convincing evidence"? What about the study in the International Journal of Andrology that showed the effects of phthalates in little boys - that their masculinity was monitored by the concentrations of phthalates in their mother's urine? The researchers concluded that that exposure to phthalates affects the level of testosterone needed for development of male reproductive organs and the 'masculine brain' (http://children.webmd.com/news/20091116/phthalates-affect-way-young-boys...). What about the study done by Mt. Sinai School of Medicine that linked the concentration of phthalates, phenols and phytoestrogens to little girls developing breasts and growing pubic hair when they're 7 to 9 years old? (http://www.mountsinai.org/about-us/newsroom/press-releases/exposure-to-t...) And why did the President's Cancer Panel recommend we avoid endocrine-disrupting chemicals like phthalates to prevent cancer? (http://deainfo.nci. nih.gov/advisory/pcp/pcp08-09rpt/PCP_Report_08-09_508.pdf). They didn't pull that recommendation out of their hat. These are just a few of the studies and credible sources.
Also, the Mt Sinai study began in 2004 through 2007 and the President’s Cancer Panel report, published earlier this year, is for 2008-2009. The reference you cite, although published in 2009, is based on expert panels that were convened “toward the end of the 1990s,” so their conclusions could only be based on studies conducted prior to that time – over 10 years ago.
Whether you are getting paid by the U.S. government is irrelevant, Mr. Hughes, since the government is acting upon, and plans to take further action on, the most recent studies available. And ‘industry’ is forced to do the same.
Thanks to Mr. Cik and others who are taking the initiative to make our lives safer without waiting for the government to order it.
naturepedic mattress
Barry we believe in the product too, which is why we chose to represent the line in our baby store.
Naturepedic has our full support.
Phthalates make PVC products
Phthalates make PVC products more durable and easier to sanitize which are important for health and safety. Consumers should not be concerned about phthalates in mattress covers. They do not migrate easily out of products and CDC biomonitoring data shows that exposure is well below safety levels set by EPA. For more info, please visit www.phthalates.org, a web site sponsored by the American Chemistry Council which I represent.
phthalates and EPA
Everyone knows the EPA can be bought. Standards set by EPA can be taken with a grain of salt. Please stop propagating a false sense of security when really you're trying to save a billion dollar industry.
There is nothing benign about PVC and its components. (See the link below which was not sponsored by the American Chemistry Council)
http://www.toxicnation.ca/node/17
I happen to represent MOTHERS everywhere who watch their children fall sick to serious environmental illnesses, develop serious immune disorders, and thus have negatively impacted lives. I also happen to have a child that once the phthalate-softened vinyl was removed, had a remarkable improvement in her asthma and sleep apnea. There are other non-toxic methods to promote health and safety.
For instance, proper handwashing with bar soap is part of universal lab procedures. Not, use cancer-causing toxic ingredients to kill microbes good (commensal) and bad (pathogenic). Trying to sell poison for the sake of health and safety is an embarrassing attempt at marketing.
Such ignorant thinking is what created this mess, so please....accept that change will come and redirect your R&D into products that will be SAFE according to ALL standards.
There's too much at stake - we have to act now
After finding out 10 years ago about the toxicity of crib mattresses, I began researching and searching for safe alternatives. I'm very happy to have found Naturepedic 5 years ago. After extensively checking into their mattresses, I'm confident I'm recommending the best and safest crib mattresses. And now it's extremely important to make non-toxic the norm, as Barry Cik mentions. There's no doubt anymore that developing babies immune and nervous systems are affected by these chemicals. There's too much at stake for babies to be sleeping on toxic crib mattresses just because their parents can't afford a non-toxic one or don't know about the dangers. We all need to act now to get these chemicals out of all mattresses.
Jane Sheppard
Healthy Child
We have a Naturepedic baby
We have a Naturepedic baby mattress that we just love! They are highly durable and have held up wonderfully through all three of my children. I sleep easier at night knowing that my sweet babies are safe from those nasty chemicals during the most important first two year development of their life. Loved hearing how this company came into existence. Thanks for the post.