T James Sprott OBE 10 Combes Road
MSc PhD FNZIC Remuera
Consulting Chemist Auckland 5
Forensic Scientist New Zealand

Phone & fax: 64-9-5231150
sprott@...

1 November 2002


MEDIA RELEASE

NEW RESEARCH IN BRITISH MEDICAL JOURNAL CONFIRMS AGAIN:
INFANT MATTRESSES CAUSE COT DEATH

Cot death expert Dr Jim Sprott has welcomed new research which
confirms that
infant mattresses cause cot death. A four-and-a-half year study by
the
Scottish Cot Death Trust(1) published in the British Medical Journal
(2nd
November 2002) has shown that the re-use of infant mattresses TRIPLES
the
risk of cot death.

"This research finding cannot be ignored," said Dr Sprott. "It is
crucial
to cot death prevention."

>From late 1994 Dr Sprott has publicised mattress-wrapping for cot
death
prevention nationwide in New Zealand, and since that time a very large
number of babies have slept on wrapped mattresses. There has been no
reported cot death among those babies; the New Zealand cot death rate
has
fallen by 48%(2), and the European/Pakeha rate by about 75%.

Earlier this year a German doctor published the results of the New
Zealand
mattress-wrapping campaign(3) in an overseas journal, including
statistical
analysis carried out in conjunction with the University of Munich.
The
statistics showed that the proof of the validity of mattress-wrapping
for
cot death prevention was one billion billion times(4) the level of
proof
generally accepted by the medical community as proving a scientific
proposition.

"The 100% success of mattress-wrapping has been proved in New Zealand
over a
period of nearly eight years," said Dr Sprott. "Now Scottish
researchers
have confirmed that mattresses cause cot death, and a German doctor
has
demonstrated that the proof of mattress-wrapping is vastly greater
than the
accepted medical standard of proof."

"The Ministry of Health, Cot Death Association and Plunket have been
dithering around over mattress-wrapping for nearly eight years," said
Dr
Sprott. "During that time around 550 New Zealand babies have died
needlessly of cot death. The Ministry, Cot Death Association and
Plunket
have been informed time and again about the efficacy of mattress-
wrapping in
preventing cot death - yet they have refused to act on this life-
saving
information. I hold them responsible for those 550 deaths."

* * * * * *

(1) Tappin et al, Used infant mattresses and sudden infant death
syndrome
in Scotland: case-control study, British Medical Journal 2002;325:1007

(2) From 2.1 deaths per 1000 live births in 1994 to 1.1/1000 in 2000
(provisional)

(3) Kapuste, H, Giftige Gase im Kinderbett ("Toxic Gases in Infants'
Beds"), Zeitschrift fuer Umweltmedizin No. 44; January-April 2002:18-
20

(4) p < 1.9 x 10(exp minus 22) (The generally accepted figure for
medical proof is p < 1.0 x 10(exp minus 3))