This is an important piece of information about how to keep your young children alive while they are sleeping.

It is simple process and involves merely placing a protective polyethylene covering over the whatever mattress the baby will be sleeping on. If you cannot afford the one that Dr. Davis has on his site, you can go to one of my favorite stores, Home Depot, and purchase a sheet of polyethylene that is the same size as one of the sheets and use that instead.

This is a real problem and I regularly find elevated antimony levels in the hair of infants and children who are sleeping on new mattresses. If you are obtaining a new mattress you should absolutely purchase one without fire retardant.

You may need a doctor's prescription to do this though.

The Explanation

In 1986 a New Zealand chemist, Dr. T. James Sprott, proposed that babies dying of Crib Death - known as Cot Death or SIDS in his country - were in all likelihood dying from a gas poisoning.

He believed that one or more gases were being generated from within crib mattresses. In 1989 an English chemist, Mr. Barry A. Richardson identified one of the gases.

In his experiments using pieces of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) taken from 200 mattresses upon which a baby had died from SIDS, he was able to conclude that a fungus, which was found in these same mattresses, was generating a gas from antimony known as stibine.

Antimony had been added to these mattresses as a fire retardant. Richardson, who had previously published over 250 scientific papers on similar subjects, was considered to be an expert. Based upon his knowledge, he also drew attention to the fact that the gases of phosphorus and arsenic, which had also been added to baby mattresses made from PVC, were probably involved as well.

Due to the media attention he received, Richardson was forced to make public his preliminary findings prior to having his final results peer reviewed and published in the scientific literature. As an immediate result of his research, Richardson recommended that parents protect their babies by placing them on their backs for sleep.

He also recommended that parents wrap their mattresses, if they were unable to purchase a new mattress for every baby, with a thick clear polyethylene material.

Most importantly he recommended that manufacturers remove the chemical compounds in question from baby mattresses and called for further research.

The reaction of the traditional British medical community and the Foundation for the Study of SIDS (FSID) was swift and unexpected. Rather than consider any possibility that Richardson was correct and issue a warning to parents while further research was being conducted, they accused Richardson of unscientific behavior.

In response the Health Ministry ordered further investigations to counter Richardson's findings and to hopefully disprove his results. Rather than acknowledge the possibility that Richardson's work had added some new and important information about SIDS, and possible other learning and behavioral disorders, critics instead chose to denounce his findings.

During the eleven years, which have followed, parents and healthcare workers in the United States have heard very little if anything about Richardson's discovery. It deserves to be pointed out that the comments and editorials reflecting the opinions of prominent SIDS researchers appeared in medical journals criticizing Richardson's findings. In all likelihood these editorials brought a halt to similar research in the United States.

The Chemical Compounds

In the 1950's various chemical compounds were added to baby products, especially those manufactured from polyvinyl chloride (PVC). Governmental regulations in England, as in the United States, had forced mattress manufacturers to add fire retardant chemicals to baby mattresses.

Antimony was approved for this purpose after PVC was found to be very flammable. Antimony is normally an extremely rare element. However, natural products such as sheepskins may contain antimony.

New Zealand sheepskins, in particular, are frequently contaminated with antimony. These sheepskins, which are commonly used by native New Zealanders known as the Maori, are therefore chemically similar to baby mattresses.

This surely accounts for the extremely high SIDS rate among this group. Antimony must be considered dangerous, because both OSHA and NIOSH have strict regulations concerning the protection of workers. Antimony has chemical properties, which make it similar to lead.

Arsenic is also a chemical and compounds containing arsenic have been added to baby mattresses. This fact deserves special attention, because it has been known that the gas of arsenic can be generated by fungal activity for over a century.

Arsine Is Extremely Poisonous

A large number of babies were accidentally poisoned by arsine during the 1890's. At that time the source of the poisoning was a pigment known as Paris green, which had been manufactured into fashionable fabrics. Paris green had been made from a chemical compound containing arsenic.

A chemist named Gosio determined the deadly gas was being released by fungal activity-a possibility, which had been overlooked by the medical community. It is reasonable to conclude that the gas generated by fungal activity on compounds containing arsenic is well known.

It would also be reasonable to conclude that compounds containing arsenic should never have been placed in products susceptible to mildew. Nevertheless, today arsenic can be found in some baby mattresses made from PVC.

Phosphorus is a common element found naturally in the body. Although it is not considered toxic, organo-phosphates containing phosphorus are poisonous. Organo-phosphates, which are used as insecticides and pesticides, are extremely dangerous.

Phosphorus has found an extremely important role in PVC, because it strengthens the plasticizer and softens the material. Phosphorus also has fire retardant properties similar to antimony. The gas of phosphorus is known as phosphine.

Saran gas used in the subway attack in Tokyo and in Saddam Hussein's war with Iran is similar. The gas of phosphorus, much like those of antimony and arsenic, occurs naturally in our environment by microbiological activity. Therefore the existence of these gases in the environment is a scientific fact.

In order to understand the reason why phosphorus, antimony and arsenic behave similarly it will be necessary to consult the Periodic Table of the Elements. These three elements will be found grouped together with nitrogen in class 5 A.

Nitrogen is the major source of nutrition for fungal organisms. Therefore, it should not be surprising that fungal organisms can also metabolize these other elements. Dr. T. J. Sprott points to this close relationship in his book titled "Cot Death Cover-up?" which was published in New Zealand and Great Britain by Penguin Press.

As a consequence of the structural similarity, chemists have no difficulty understanding why microorganisms such as fungi have the ability to consume compounds in this class other than nitrogen.

Mildew

It is important to know more about the fungal organisms, which are commonly referred to as mildew or molds.

Practically all baby mattresses will become quickly contaminated if mildew is present anywhere in the home.

Recently, there have been reports of other destructive molds, which have caused entire homes to be torn down.

Over 120 mildew and mold pneumonia deaths have also been reported. Consequently, some forms of molds and mildew should be considered far more dangerous than the so-called "Super-bugs," which are commonly being found in hospitals. In fact certain fungal organisms are virtually indestructible.

The Old Testament of the Bible also refers to homes, which had to be destroyed if a "spreading leprosy" appeared on the inside walls. This growth described in Leviticus was in all likelihood a mold, which was know- even in ancient times- to be a harbinger of a plague, which would cause disease and death.

Baby Mattress Chemical Compounds and Mildew

At this point it would be reasonable to be alarmed and concerned by the fact that mildew can usually be found with chemical compounds in baby products, in general, and mattresses, in particular. It deserves to be mentioned that SIDS was recognized as a diagnostic entity prior to the introduction of these chemicals into a baby's environment.

Therefore it would be prudent and reasonable to see what might happen if these chemical compounds were removed. If there was a sudden decline in unexplained infant deaths and behavioral disorders, most might agree that one or more of these factors played a role.

Everyone is currently in agreement that having a baby sleep on his or her back has reduced the number of deaths and as a result makes good sense. Turning a baby's face away from the mattress is the likely reason. Therefore, the removal of chemicals would make even more sense, because a further decrease in deaths and neurological problems would provide the answer.

An improper assumption was made that antimony would prevent a baby's death if a fire occurred. There was never a peer reviewed scientific study. Therefore removing antimony makes much better sense than leaving it in baby products.

This is especially true because high liver tissue concentrations of antimony have been found in victims of unexplained infant deaths and hair samples from autistic children. Although this does not prove that antimony is the cause of death or disability this fact is cause for major concern.

Hair samples taken from older children in families of unexplained infant death victims in England studied in 1994 were also found to have antimony levels twenty-six times higher than the levels of their mothers.

When this information becomes more widespread reasonable people will begin to demand the removal of antimony, especially from a baby's environment, unless of course the safety of antimony can be proven with a peer reviewed "double blinded" study.

In the meantime parents must begin to demand both a "mildew and chemical free environment" for their babies. Therefore regardless of whether or not anyone believes in poison gases, there is simply no place for these chemicals in any environment favorable to the growth of mildew.

Those individuals who choose to continue to defend the safety of chemicals and mildew will be required to re-write history. A prudent and cautious expert, James Kemp M.D., a SIDS researcher from St. Louis, in a recent newspaper story asked the perfect question "why would any parent want to place their kid in a pile of chemicals (and mildew) regardless of whether or not they believed in poison gases

Countries such as India, China, Japan and Russia have never experienced the unexplained infant death or autism epidemics that now plague the rest of the World. Is it possible that in those countries the reason is that PVC and chemical compounds have never become necessary components of their babies' environments?

Parents with children, who are living with high antimony and arsenic hair levels, who have disabilities, will also begin to insist that the relationship between chemicals and illnesses be investigated. Manufacturers and chemical companies may even be forced to disclose scientific information, which has been kept secret.

Editorial Opinion

The majority of the members of the scientific community in this country have relied upon erroneous reports from Great Britain that the gas explanation for SIDS was disproved. Therefore it will be wise to examine this evidence in more detail.

It will be important to attempt to understand the significance of what has already been reported and why so little information has reached parents in the United States.

The Turner Committee (1991) and Limerick Commission (1994) were established and funded by the British government in response to the "accidental poisoning" publicity.

Reports from these committees released by the Health Ministry of England have been cited in editorials in various medical and scientific journals. Editorials, it should be pointed out, are for the most part only the opinions of the authors.

Therefore an editorial may in fact be misleading and untrue. It is clear that neither of these two reports disproved the fact that mildew can generate gases. This would have required changing nature and history. Therefore, it remains of critical importance to consider editorials as just opinions.

As an example, an editorial appeared in an American Journal of Pediatrics after the American Academy of Pediatrics agreed to adopt the recommendation from New Zealand and England that babies be placed on their backs for sleep. The author of this editorial stated that acting upon and instituting the back position for sleep in the United States would actually increase the death rate.

It is fortunate that the American Academy of Pediatrics ignored the opinion of a most prominent member and proceeded to officially adopt the back position. However, it would be fair to say that many pediatricians and other healthcare workers read that editorial and as a consequence may have delayed promoting and implementing the academy's recommendation.

History now shows that that particular editorial opinion was irresponsible and entirely incorrect.

The actual recommendations that have emerged from these two government-sponsored investigations have not been reported in editorials reaching the United States. This suggests that important findings of these two committees may have been deliberately ignored.

Although the first group, the Turner Committee, could not duplicate Richardson's original work, several important recommendations were made but were not mentioned in these editorials. In particular, the Turner Report recommended the removal of the chemicals in question from baby mattresses. The second recommendation was that all children in the United Kingdom be tested for antimony.

These recommendations are very unusual, unless of course the committee members remained concerned about a danger. The editorials that followed and the published comments of members of the Health Ministry of England, for reasons known only to them, chose to ignore these two recommendations.

Instead they decided to emphasize their own false conclusion, which was that Richardson had been proven wrong. The chairman of that committee, Professor Paul Turner was one of the first people to state that the government's conclusion was untrue.

In fact, he also went on to note that another of his committee's recommendation had been ignored. It had recommended that further research would be necessary.

As a result, American researchers, who relied upon this "unscientific" editorial comment, simply ignored the fact that Richardson had discovered new and important information that deserved honest follow-up.

The next group established-the Limerick Commission- was created to defuse a 1994 television broadcast which showed high antimony levels in victims of unexplained infant deaths, was in fact successful in producing a gas from antimony, but then denied that this was likely to occur in a crib mattress.

It is important to note that Richardson pointed to the fact that the gas of antimony was demonstrated by the Limerick investigations, in spite of the fact that by the time the studies were conducted most antimony had already been removed by manufacturers from the baby mattresses examined. Once again his comments were ignored.

No editorials have reported that Dr. Sprott has successfully waged a single-handed battle against unexplained infant deaths in New Zealand.

In spite of the fact that he presented his 100% success in preventing deaths using a protective mattress cover in February 2000 at the Sixth International SIDS Conference, he was also ignored and was subjected to ridicule. His comments and results have not even appeared in the written proceedings of that conference

At that same SIDS conference Dr. William Cullen, a scientist from Canada, presented evidence that a sheepskin he had examined, which had been slept upon by a SIDS baby contained both antimony and a fungus.

The fungus Cullen found was new and he reported that it is closely related to the original fungus found by Richardson in all 200 SIDS mattresses studied in England in 1989, except for the fact that the new fungus was even more efficient in producing stibine gas from antimony.

No editorials have appeared which contain this important information. Dr. Cullen's identification and demonstration of the fungal generation of stibine gas is of critical importance, because the New Zealand Maori population continues to have one of the highest, if not the highest rates of SIDS in the World. A Maori baby had died on the sheepskin he examined

The evidence supporting a link between mattresses and unexplained infant deaths is strongly supported by several additional important scientific and epidemiological facts. The first fact is that a second or a third baby in the same family has a risk of SIDS that is two to three times greater than the first child does.

There is also a greater likelihood that a second or later child in the same family will sleep on a used mattress. This increased death rate associated with the re-use of baby mattresses has already been clearly demonstrated by a study conducted by the Scottish Cot Death Trust.

Next the fact that the incidence of having a SIDS baby in the United States is three times greater in Afro-Americans is important. Although ignored for a long time, this has recently been acknowledged by the AAP. This is significant, because lower economic circumstances are consistent with the re-use of older baby mattresses.

It is reasonable to conclude that lower socioeconomic circumstances may be more closely related to SIDS than any of the so-called risk factors. The fact of the matter is that this makes most of the so-called multi-factors totally unscientific and irrelevant

Recent evidence of a shift in the incidence of SIDS to daycare centers is also very alarming but also predictable, because it is a well-known fact that mattress re-use in this particular setting is a common practice. It is also a fact that babies in the daycare setting are oftentimes allowed to sleep near the floor in playpens or on mats.

If gases form that are heavier than air they will accumulate near or on the floor especially if ventilation is poor. The gas of antimony, for example is more than twice the density of air.

Although critics of a SIDS link to older mattresses and a gas, view the growing incidence of daycare SIDS as "worrisome;" no meaningful warning about the possible mattress gas danger has been forthcoming. Instead the recently revised SIDS policy of the American Academy of Pediatricians has chosen to point a finger directly at daycare workers.

Unfortunately, this will continue to be the case unless everyone can somehow agree that this policy is based upon probability and an "unscientific" assumption that is far more unlikely than the poison gas explanation.

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