FORCED TO SLEEP IN AND ABSORB TOXIC CHEMICALS TO MAKE OTHERS RICH: THE UNITED STATES CONSUMER PRODUCT SAFETY COMMISSION CONSPIRACY THAT IS HARMING AMERICANS
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The CPSC has forced consumers to sleep in known toxic chemicals in our mattresses without our consent! 16 CFR 1633, the 2007 CPSC regulations require mattresses to resist ignition from open flames, had led people to sleeping on known toxic chemicals. Such chemicals include Ammonium Polyphosphate, Antimony Trioxide (a heavy metal that mimics arsenic), Boric Acid (used as roach killer), Decabromodiphenyl Oxide (a known carcinogen), Formaldehyde (a known carcinogen), Vinylidene Chloride, and Melamine (the substance found in pet food a few years back that killed many people’s pets). What’s worse of all, the CPSC required no labeling of these chemicals by mattress manufacturers so they are free to use whatever chemicals they see fit and the consumer is left completely in the dark on the issue.
SO WHOSE DATA IS THE CORRECT DATA?
Knowing that the chemicals that the mattress industry will use are known toxicants, the CPSC performed an in-depth risk assessment of these chemicals and their affects on humans. In this assessment, they prove people will absorb these chemicals into their bodies and, additionally, they admit that the potential health risks are not completely known in some cases. Despite this, using their own calculations for ADD (Average Daily Dose) and ADI (Acceptable Daily Intake) they conclude that sleeping on chemical laden mattresses is safe. However, some of the absorption data and risk data used by the CPSC are different from the calculations compiled by the Center for Disease Control and the Environmental Protection Agency. So whose data is correct? Could the CPSC be wrong?
JUST WHO IS THE CPSC LOOKING OUT FOR?
There are several striking things about this whole issue that indicates that the CPSC wasn’t looking out for the best interest of the American consumer. For example, when consumers we’ve spoken to are presented this information, thus far 100 percent of people would prefer to have a mattress without the chemicals and to assume the minute risk (1 in 3 million to 1 in 14 million) of dying of a mattress fire. So why did he CPSC force on consumers something they would prefer to do without after they learn the facts? Also, why didn’t the CPSC give consumers a choice between flameproof mattresses and non-flameproof mattresses? Why didn’t the CPSC require mattress manufacturers to disclose what chemicals they use on the mattress law label? Isn’t more information better than less? After all, if a consumer has known allergies to formaldehyde, wouldn’t those consumers like to know that their mattress has these chemicals in them? In addition to all of this, why didn’t the CPSC set limits on the amounts of chemicals manufacturers can use? Without this, it is possible for manufacturers to use too much chemicals thus throwing a proverbial wrench in the whole absorption analysis for average daily dose? BTW, this question is brought up because we’ve on several occasions proven overdosing in a few mattresses, which we will show later in this article. Lastly, in order for mattress manufacturers to meet the new standards, for each mattress model produced, a sample must be submitted to a burn test at a designated testing facility. During this test, two propane burner flames are put to the mattress for seventy seconds. These propane flames are purported to mimic burning bed clothes. What good is a flame proof mattress if the sheets, blankets, and pillows still burn?! But there is more! The purported reason for making mattresses flame proof is to give consumers more time to get out of their houses in a house fire because, supposedly, since the mattress now burns much slower. Think now! Most victims of house fires die from smoke, not flames AND most house fires don’t start in the bedroom. So, by the time a fire that started in the kitchen spreads to the bedroom, a flame proof mattress can’t help a thing!!!!!! These questions and facts will lead any rational person to believe that the CPSC isn’t really interested in consumer safety and that perhaps they are looking out for someone else’s interests.
THE CONSUMER PRODUCT SAFETY COMMISSION IS BOUGHT AND PAID FOR BY SPECIAL INTERESTS
Two facts may hint at what really drove the move by the CPSC to instill these fire-retardant regulations. One if the fact that there is a lobbying group called the Fire Retardant Chemicals Association. Is it possible that the new regulations benefit fire-retardant chemical producers? Obviously! A second fact is that there is another lobby group called the International Sleep Products Association that represents mostly large domestic mattress manufacturers and ISPA will not disclose who their association’s members are. Why the secrecy? As it turns out, ISPA supported the FR regulations by the CPSC. Could large domestic manufacturers benefit from such insane regulations? If these new regulations put a financial burden on imports and small mattress manufacturers than cannot absorb the costs of, then it forces them out of business. A case-in-point is the store chain W.S. Badcock. Quoting a 5/16/2007 Furniture Today article, “Top 100 store chain W.S. Badcock said today it will close its begging factory rather than make a ‘major expansion’ that would be required to meet new federal flammability regulations.”
Another case-in-point is an article published by newsreview.com in 06/07/2007. Quoted in this article, “There are currently only 600 mattress manufacturers in the United States, and the new safety codes could eliminate a third of them.” So, a third of all domestic mattress manufacturers could be put out of business?! This is serious and profound evidence that 16 CFR 1633 was designed to benefit large domestic manufacturers by eliminated a third of their competition. Now, do you trust the CPSC’s risk assessment? Could the International Sleep Products Association have paid for that risk assessment? Considering all of this, does it make you want to spend your money on a mattress made by a large mattress manufacturer that, in conjunction with the chemical industry, may have been involved in a conspiracy to make consumers sleep in known toxic chemicals?
PEOPLE GETTING SICK!
Since 2007, we’ve talked with numerous customers who’ve bought a big brand-name mattress and have gotten seriously ill from them. And when we hear such testimonials and when the opportunity arises, we’ve spent our own money to have these people’s mattresses tested for the chemicals with some AMAZINGLY ALARMING results. One of the most alarming examples is Rachel from Illinois who bought a very big brand-named mattress and after about a year started getting really sick. She saw numerous doctors who couldn’t figure out the source of her fatigue and memory loss. Finally a friend suggested she have a hair analysis done to show if there were any high level substances in her body. Sure enough, the had very high levels of Antimony, which is heavy metal and more toxic than heavy metal Mercury. She didn’t know what it was so she did some research on the internet and discovered it was a fire retardant used in mattresses and other upholstered products. Upon learning this she figured that she started having health issues after they bought a new mattress. So she quit sleeping on that mattress and put it in storage in case she needed it as evidence in a suit against the company. She had the mattress tested and it came back positive for Antimony. Later she found my video and called me to get more information. In that conversation I asked her if she had a quantitative value of Antimony in the mattress which her test did not reveal. So I asked her to send me a sample of the mattress, and I had it tested for Antimony and for a quantitative value. Below are the results:
As you can see, this chart shows about 1800 parts per million of Antimony. To put this into perspective, some mattress manufacturers will get a “purity” certification for their mattresses from Certi Pure on the foams used in their mattresses (btw, such certifications only certify the foams themselves, not the whole mattress. A very easy way to deceive consumers). According to the standards used by Certi-Pure, the maximum amount of Antimony to qualify as pure is 0.5 parts per million as you can see below:
So, Rachel’s mattress had 3500 times the amount of Antimony than is considered safe, according to Certi Pure’s standards. It is no wonder she has permanent neurological damage! But why has this mattress company put so much Antimony in their mattresses? Why overdose it with Antimony? And why didn’t the CPSC regulate how much Antimony can be used if they were looking out for consumers? More on this later.
Another customer who contacted us wrote us the following testimonial:
Dear Lee,
First of all, thanks so much for what you are doing for the public! I’m so very much in support of your efforts to make truly natural mattresses of high quality that are reasonably priced. It seems that you’ve kind of stumbled your way into the “truth movement” where people are awakening to the fact that so many of the things we think and believe aren’t true. Keep speaking truth!! It’s so important.
My family has personal experience with the toxic effects of chemical laden mattresses. I purchased a memory foam mattress from a big name company in 2003. Nine years later, when my daughter (seven years old at the time) started sleeping on this mattress, she began a rapid onset and rapidly progressing early puberty. She has a rapid weight gain, development of breast buds, emotional mood swings and a few hairs pop up. This all happened in the space of a couple of months. It took a little while for us to suspect the mattress, but once we took her off the mattress and put her on an organic one, the progression stopped very quickly and we even saw some regression from the point she was at that time. She is almost 14 now and has progressed through a normal, natural puberty because we realized that she was being poisoned by this mattress!
This study shows how flame retardant chemicals can mimic the behavior of estrogen: 3-D images show flame retardants can mimic estrogens in NIH study | National Institutes of Health (NIH)
This definitely caused our daughter’s problem, but these chemicals could possibly be implicated in a whole host of other potential problems that people who are sleeping on these mattresses may be having concerning their endocrine health.
This testimonial sent to us is the most disturbing of all:
“…..Oh, yeah, am I familiar with the “fire retardant,” “Deca.” ….Six years ago, as an ICU RN, doctors & I stood helplessly around the bed of a 26-year-old distance runner, as her organs shut down, one after the other (organ transplantation was not an option—as she had multiple organs affected)…. …lt seems she had “inherited” a cheap bed (manufactured in CHINA) that (later tests revealed) contained 100X the “allowable” limits of Deca. As she was so lean, the Deca that might have been stored in fat—and “simply” caused endocrine/autoimmune abnormalities—was absorbed directly into her system. It took 12, agonizing weeks for the poor girl to die, leaving grieving parents & a fiancé behind (and no—litigation wasn’t an option, as the Chinese have a million ways from Sunday to avoid responsibility)……. ****PLEASE, keep INFORMING people….You very well may be SAVING lives”
Here is another customer who sent us his hair analysis results and testimonial, so very sad and maddening:
As you can see, his Antimony is off the charts. Here is what he had to say about his experience:
We purchased a Mattress from mattress firm which was a [removed] in March of 2018, On August 24th 2019 the only way I can put it is I woke up and lost my mind. Mentally I had anxiety and weird intrusive thoughts. A moth prior to this mental breakdown my eye started to twitch that I just contributed to stress or drinking alcohol. I would drink a beer about every couple night and that was the only unhealthy habit I really had. I worked out about everyday and ran about 5-7 miles a week. I stopped drinking alcohol because I thought that was the problem but the problems continued. I tried hypnosis, medication, herbs, amino acids, it seemed like nothing helped. I went to doctors and my initial bloodwork was always fine and they wanted to just prescribe OTC anxiety and depressions medication but I kept telling everyone it feels like my body is being attacked and I have this pressure in my head and a eye twitch. Everyone thought I was just literally crazy. I was going to a different doctor each week just praying to god someone would figure out what was wrong with me but all my regular blood tests came back fine. My anxiety was so bad I tried something called TMS therapy which is a magnet that goes on your brain that is suppose to slow down your excitatory messengers. That helped a little bit but I still felt like crap and this was around February of 2020. As a engineering background with medical classes in college I decided to take my health into my own hands. With my chronic fatigue and no sex drive I decided to test my own testosterone. My testosterone came back to a level under 100 for a 30 year old male at the time with a previous history of working out everyday full of energy etc. I had MRI done and my bloodwork showed my body parts were trying to produce this hormone but some reason it was not. My MRI showed my blood fine but it showed chronic sinusitis in my sinuses. I went to a mens health clinic and got put on testosterone therapy thinking that this is finally the answer to end the hell I was living in. After a month or two on testosterone I saw slight benefits but I would get worse anxiety on it and I did not know why and my brain was still messed up with the thoughts, depression, depersonalization, you name it I was going through it. A guy on the testosterone forum I was on said he had the same symptoms and said he had Bartonella Lyme disease which attacks the brain and hormones like I described. So I went to a functional medicine doctor in April and had the Lyme test which showed negative but due to my neurological and hormonal symptoms she was sure I had it. So I went on the antibiotics for it even though I never remember being bit by a tick. I did grow up in West Virginia though so I thought maybe I did but don’t remember it. All this time I am spending all this money on doctors and taking my retirement out my family has gone without. So the lyme medication I wasn’t seeing any benefits except increased Candida which I had no idea why I was getting it. I was doing more research and found out that mold causes the same symptoms I had so I got the cheap mold tests done from home depot and found some spores in both my home and work. I paid for a company to come test my home and it came back negative. During this time period I was about to have sinus surgery because all my sinuses were inflamed closed. They gave me steroids a couple weeks before and I felt better for one day and I got to thinking that my body has insane inflammation and that is why I have a headache and mentally I was pretty much gone. So I had sinus surgery in June and had to stay overnight in the hospital because they thought I had a reaction to the anesthetic when in reality I now believe it was the poison in me. They gave me a steroid IV overnight and for the next week I felt great so I thought there was mold at my work. When I went back to work to show them the petri dish results they immediately did a mold test with a professional which came back negative. So at this point I was still convince it was mold somewhere and I started treating for that. Because I was detoxing I started to feel better. I got a air tester and air tested our apartment which came back .228ppm for formaldehyde and 1.5 for VOC’s so I was convinced it was our old apartment because it was new construction. I made my family immediately move out. At this time I put our old mattress on outside to air out in case it was something from the old apartment that our mattress was contaminated with. In our new apartment I started to slowly feel better but I did not give up searching what the root cause was. Some people I talk to on these facebook medical groups talked about mercury and I used to live in WV near one of the top coal power plants which was also one of the top polluting ones. I started taking ALA which is known to chelate mercury and I started to feel my body burn and mentally a little bit better so I thought I was onto something. At this time I have drained most of my family money and this was August of this year. So convinced it was mercury I got a hair test done and when it came back it showed high antimony. Not knowing what it was I came across your video which explained what was going on with me almost exactly. I checked our old mattress I had outside and it was flame retardant. The symptoms of antimony poisoning lined up with what I was experiencing. My testosterone was low, I had a eye twitch, neurologically lost my mind, my blood iron was low, and so was my magnesium. All of these are factors of antimony poisoning. On my hair test I showed high arsenic as well and I think some other factors that these mattresses have in them. I am healing now a month from toxic exposure but I will still have a long way to go before I get my mind and body back. Antimony is a heavy metal that easily crosses the blood brain barrier, gets in your mitochondria, and wreaks havok on everything in your body.
Lee that is my story and attached is proof of my blood work and other things that show part of this journey. I wish there was something that we could do to make these people pay. I don’t want any money from them but I know it has been absolute hell for me and there are days where I don’t know how much longer I could keep going just hoping and praying to god that someone had a answer and my daughter and wife and knowing I got to be there for them is what kept me going. You can take anything you want part of this story and add it to other stuff and help pass my story along for others.
CHINA’S ROLE IN THIS
It is bad enough that the CPSC is looking out for large mattress manufacturers and chemical producers instead of the American consumer. After all, why should they? They aren’t elected by the people, and the people can’t fire them for doing a bad job. What ever happened to “regulation without representation?” We are supposed to have representatives who enact laws on our behalf and if they do a bad job, we can elect alternatives to represent us. But the CPSC clearly represents whoever is paying them under the table.
But there is another side to this story. If you’ll notice in the testimonial by the nurse, she said the young woman who died from organ failure got a mattress made in China. Is it possible the Communist Chinese overdose the mattresses in order to wage a silent chemical warfare against American by using the very regulations by the CPSC for this?
One time talking to a customer, he asked if any of these materials in domestically produced mattresses come from China? I thought it was a great question because large mattress manufacturers have buying power and have every incentive to remove as many expenses from their mattresses to maximize profits. For example, is a company sells one million mattresses a year, and they can cut one dollar from the cost of production of those mattresses, they’ve just made the company one million dollars. So it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that if these companies can get materials cheaper from China, then that is where they are going to buy them. The customer then said to me, “I wouldn’t be surprised if the Chinese weren’t over dosing the materials as a way to poison us.” Indeed his though process is provocative. Since the CPSC did not regulate how much chemicals the manufacturers could use, then overdosing is a possibility AND that the Communist Chinese would indeed overdose to poison Americans and bankrupt our healthcare system. And this all makes sense in the face of the fact that Rachel’s mattress was soooo overdosed!