Features: Toxic gases from mattress

Posted : Apr, 2006

Toxic gases from mattresses cause breathing problems & sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS)

Modern mattresses are treated with chemicals of flame retardant such as phosphorous and antimony. Other chemicals added include arsenic as preservative and plastic softeners. Some common and ordinarily harmless household fungi, such as Scopulariopsis brevicaulis, consume the phosphorous, antimony and arsenic, releasing toxic gases based on phosphine (PH3), arsine (AsH3) and stibine (SbH3).

Gas generation starts when a mattress, containing both the chemicals and the fungi, is warmed to body temperature in contact with the baby. Perspiration, dribble, urine, vomit, body heat and a critically important factor of high (alkaline) pH enable the fungi to grow and generate gas rapidly.

In some cases, fungal growth in PVC, polyvinyl chloride, a soft plastic commonly used as the mattress covering, was associated with development of a pink stain in the shape of the sleeping infant. Such mattresses were always found to be generating one or more of the toxic gases.

Effects of toxic gases released from mattresses

The toxic, odourless gases released from mattresses may cause breathing problems, headaches and even sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). The toxic gases are heavier than air. They may accumulate just above the mattress surface and then diffuse away. They are about one thousand times more poisonous than carbon monoxide, which can kill a person in a closed garage with a running engine, and about as toxic as Sarin gas.

When breathed for an extended time, even in minute quantity, these toxic gases can interrupt the transfer of nervous impulses from the brain to the heart and lungs. This shuts down the central nervous system, disrupts the normal heart function and stops breathing.

If a mattress contains any antimony, for example, there is invariably more than enough, when converted to stibine, to kill a baby.

Who are most affected by these toxic gases

Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) is most common among infants from two weeks to six months old. It declines rapidly after a peak in the third month when the immune system develops better, and is rare after one year old.

Older children are less at risk because the gases cause them to develop a headache and call for help. For physiological reasons, adults are not put at risk by such gas generation, but the toxic gases may affect the quality of sleep and may be associated with other respiratory problems such as sleep apnea syndrome.

Babies with a fever are at higher risk. A rise in the temperature of mattress and bedding in contact with the baby from 98.6°F to 104°F can make the fungi more active and thus increase toxic gas generation tenfold or more.

Many baby boys have a faster metabolic rate and inhale a greater volume of air than girls, and their slightly higher temperature causes fungi to generate gases more rapidly. The SIDS rate for baby boys was 30 percent higher than for girls.

Evidence that supports the toxic gas theory

The body tissues of crib death babies and the mattresses on which they died contain high concentrations of antimony, the source of stibine gas; whereas the bodies of babies who died of other causes and non-SIDS inducing mattresses contain little or no detectable antimony.

Studies in the US found that the risk of crib death doubles from a mother's first baby to her second and doubles again from the second to the third baby. This is because the fungal spores are established during prior use; and so gas production starts sooner and in greater volume for future babies.

In addition, many infants of poor single mothers have previously used mattresses and bedding, and they have seven times greater risk of SIDS than babies of wealthy parents, who almost always buy new mattresses and bedding for their babies.

In another study, the hair of living babies contains 10 to 100 times more antimony than their parents' hair, demonstrating that they were exposed to gas generated from their mattresses. And about 95 percent of 200 consecutive SIDS babies in a 1989 test sample died on used mattresses.

Precautions to prevent SIDS

Sleeping face up is a partial solution because it makes the baby less likely to inhale heavier-than-air toxic gases generated in the mattress. There is a worldwide decline in SIDS after the "back to sleep" campaign. But babies can also absorb the toxic gases, especially phosphine, through their skin. Also, phosphine is only slightly heavier than air, and so a baby can die from inhaling that gas despite sleeping face up.

A more down-to-earth solution is not to use the modern mattresses treated with chemicals for newborn babies. Simply use chemicals-free cotton padding or simple woven floor mats instead.

Further Info