You should ask CPSC commissioner Hal Stratton if he has read, or is choosing to ignore the warnings of his own health sciences division. He is pushing this law through as fast as possible. When asked about the health dangers of the chemicals used the CPSC responds: Americans are already exposed to over one billion pounds of additional flame retardant chemicals every year. The logic being that our now sleeping in these chemicals won’t hurt us. (Doctors are already concerned about our toxic load.) Then they state that other government agencies are responsible for banning harmful chemicals. (As the say in the pesticide industry, “there are no safe chemicals, only safe use.”) Finally they say study will be ongoing, meaning that we are going to test our entire population. Then if we find we have harmed people that specific chemical will be banned. From what our science knows and tells us about the risks of these chemicals it seems likely we will eventually find human harm. Then it will be too late! How many millions of people will we kill or harm? If it is only 15% of the population it will be 45 million people. This chemical exposure in mattresses literally touches everyone; it has the potential to be our largest public health disaster ever.

Comments will be received by OMB until March 14, 2005. ADDRESSES: Comments should be filed by email to cpsc-os@cpsc.gov. Comments also may be filed by telefacsimile to (301)504–0127 or mailed, preferably in five copies, to the Office of the Secretary, Consumer Product Safety Commission, Washington, DC 20207–0001, or delivered to the Office of the Secretary, Consumer Product Safety Commission, Room 502, 4330 East-West Highway, Bethesda, Maryland; telephone (301) 504–7530. Comments should be captioned ‘‘Mattress NPR.’’

http://www.cpsc.gov/businfo/frnotices/fr05/openflame.pdf

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