ISPA defends boric acid use
David Perry -- Furniture Today, November 23, 2004
ALEXANDRIA, Va. -- The International Sleep Products Assn. is defending its support for mattress flammability standards and the safety of some key fire-resistant bedding materials.
The bedding industry's trade association has released message points for its members to use when discussing those issues with retailers. ISPA said mattress manufacturers and retailers have contacted the association with questions about flammability and FR materials.The issues to which ISPA is responding are among those being raised by Mark Strobel, president of Strobel Technologies, a specialty sleep producer based in Jeffersonville, Ind. Strobel is not an ISPA member and ISPA does not mention him in its letter to its members.Strobel said he recently faxed and e-mailed "An open letter to mattress retailers" to more than 30,000 retailers. The letter warns of what he says are the dangers of two types of bedding FR materials and urges retailers and consumers to sign a petition to stop a new FR law in California."Contact your local media and tell them what you are doing to protect public health," he says in the letter. "You may get free publicity, which tells people to visit your store to sign this petition."Strobel repeats concerns he has raised in the past about the safety of boric acid, which is used in some mattress FR applications. The bedding industry has defended the safety of those applications in the past, and ISPA does so again in its latest communication to its members."Another popular fire-retardant material that has been safely used for years is cotton treated with boric acid," ISPA says in its letter, which is signed by Dick Doyle, ISPA's president.Strobel says on his company's Web site, www.strobel.com, that boric acid is "a known, poisonous pesticide/insecticide…. Most people have the common sense not to put a pound or more in the surface of their mattress."But Doyle indicated those concerns are unfounded. "The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently concluded that humans may safely be exposed to more than twice the amount (of boron) previously thought safe," he wrote. "EPA also concluded that boron is not absorbed through the skin and that boron, which is found in a healthy diet of fruits and vegetables, is quickly eliminated from the body."Doyle also said that boric acid "is tightly bonded to the cotton fiber and wears off through use only in harmless miniscule amounts. Given the small amounts of boric acid used in mattresses and the trivial amount that wears off from use, a consumer would literally need to eat large sections of his or her bed daily to approach the EPA's new limit."As for its use as a pesticide, Doyle wrote: "While boric acid is an effective and preferred pesticide because it interferes with an insect's digestive abilities, it does not have the same effect on humans or mammals and does not harm the environment."Strobel said he stands by his concerns about boric acid.In his materials, Strobel also questions the safety of moda-crylic fibers, which Doyle defends in his letter to ISPA members.And Strobel questions ISPA's support of mattress flammability legislation."Are they thinking that testing costs to comply will drive many of their smaller competitors out of business?" Strobel asks. He notes the innerspring industry "has seen their market share decline" as specialty sleep bedding has gained ground.But Doyle said that ISPA, while generally opposed to increased government regulation of the mattress industry, "identified the risks and benefits of a new safety standard, and pursued a strategy that would benefit consumers, industry and retailers by improving product safety in an economically and scientifically feasible manner."The full text of Doyle's letter can be found on ISPA's Web site, www.sleepproducts.org.
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ISPA defends boric acid use
Dec 5, 2004
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