After reading about the horrible health consequences of breathing in PBDE (flame retardant) laden dust from almost every household object, I was momentarily relieved to read that all PBDE's except the least harmful, 'deca', are now banned in the US. I say momentarily because a few lines later, at http://www.mnceh.org/campaigns.flame.php#safer, is the information that "However, under certain circumstances, deca can break down into more toxic forms of PBDEs, including the banned octa-BDE."
Laura Silver, writing for the Temeculah Valley News
Friday, August 8th, 2008.
Issue 32, Volume 8. "Are flame retardants a bigger risk than fire?", reports:
"The adult intake dose of total PBDEs was estimated to be 7.7 ng/kg body weight/day, and children's estimated intakes were higher at 49.3 ng/kg/day for ages 1–5, 14.4 ng/kg/day for 6–11, and 9.1 ng/kg/day for 12–19. The much higher dose for the child age 1–5 was due to the doubling of dust ingestion from 50 to 100 mg/day." "Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology (2008) 18, 2–19; doi:10.1038/sj.jes.7500572; published online 11 April 2007" by Matthew Lorber."
Can I explain all that? No, but I do understand that Matthew Lorber, a researcher, is stating that children between the ages of 1-5 years intake seven times the amount of toxic dust from flame or fire retardants that adults do.
There is hours and days of reading about the subject of phosphine gas in mattresses, arsenic, boric acid, formaldehyde, and many other chemical names of fragrances and solvents that go into your family bedding, including into your children's bedding. Heat and moisture created by a human body then created interactions that release chemical gasses that we inhale, or particles that we absorb through our skin.
The human body, including mothers' milk, holds on to these toxic commercial products for years.
Memory foam, pillow topped mattresses, including all the best brands,contain dangerous chemicals. While many brands have stopped using various PDBE's, they are not chemical free.
Headaches, muscle pain, skin rashes, depression, flu-like symptoms, cancers, and respiratory ailments including asthma, have all appeared by the use of memory foam mattresses and pillows, and then been quickly relieved after usage stopped. There are many many stories about this.
Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) appeared and increased alarmingly after flame and fire retardants were added to mattresses. The nerve gases resulting from these chemicals in non-organic mattresses, bedding and baby sleepwear simply shut down an infant's nervous system, turning its new life to "OFF".
If you cannot replace your family's bedding all at once, begin with organic sheets and pillow cases, and a mattress topper. You can take a look at what's available at Sleepy Sheep.