Is Your Mattress Poisoning You?
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CNN has a great story in the spotlight on their webpage about Body Burden and the high levels of chemicals we have in our systems.
The story focuses on the Hammond family. They allowed their two children to take part in a study that would measure chemical levels in their blood. I am not sure if this is the same study that the Environmental Working Group (EWG) talked to me last year about involving Gigi, but it sounds similar.
(At the time, my ex had just left and I did not want to involve Gigi in blood work, since she is so fearful of the process. Otherwise, I greatly respect the work done by EWG.)
Tests run on the Hammond family showed that their young children had chemical exposure levels up to seven times those of their parents. The chemicals in question were polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs). The testing is known as “body burden” testing, which refers to the chemical “burden” of toxins running through the bloodstream.
PBDEs have been proven to cause neurological damage to lab rats. Studies are only now underway to discover what damage they may be doing to humans. Several countries have taken this issue seriously. Sweden banned PBDEs in 1998. The European Union banned most PBDEs in 2004. In the United States, the sole manufacturer of two kinds of PBDEs voluntarily stopped making them in 2004. A third kind, Deca, is still used in the U.S. in electrical equipment, construction material, mattresses and textiles. It is often used as a flame retardant.
In the months after Gigi was born in 2003, I worked with EWG to take part in a study that measured PBDE levels in breast milk. The study showed that American women have 10 to 100 times more PBDEs in their bodies than European women do. My levels were some of the highest in the study, which was difficult to understand if you look at my background, jobs, where I have lived, etc. It is not breast feeding that is the problem. It is the pollution we live with here in the U.S. We are bringing consumer products into our homes that are putting off chemicals we absorb into our systems. I, in turn, passed them along to Gigi as she nursed. I still think nursing was the best decision I have made since becoming a mother, but I am irritated that we have manufacturers who are not looking at the studies being done in relation to flame retardants and learning from other countries who have banned PBDEs.
How many more studies must be done in order to get the message through to manufactures?
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