Is your carpet poisoning your child?


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Concern has been raging over the potential toxicity of fitted carpets. Recent research carried out in America has apparently demonstrated that carpets behave like ‘giant sponges’, absorbing chemical and pollutants brought into the house via shoes and pets and as a result of cleaning products, deodorants and insecticides being sprayed in the home. Mould and cigarette smoke add to the lethal cocktail which builds in concentration over the years, rendering the level of ambient toxic pollutants 50 times greater indoors than outdoors.

John Roberts, an American environmental engineer, is on record as saying that a sample of carpet dust from an average home demonstrated high levels of pesticides, carcinogenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, heavy metals such as mercury, cadmium and lead and the now banned polychlorinated biphenols (PCBs) which used to be used in a range of lubricants, pesticides and plastics.

The researchers concludes that the average US toddler is exposed to such large quantities of the highly toxic chemical, benzopyrene - found in cooking fumes and tobacco smoke - that it is the equivalent of each child smoking three cigarettes per day .

Because children have a much higher metabolic rate than adults and inhale 23 times as much air, they are more at risk of poisoning. They also frequently put their hands to their mouths after touching carpets and furniture, thereby putting themselves in direct contact with contamination.

Potential risks include developing asthma, allergies, growth and hearing impairment, nervous system dysfunction and certain cancers.

Despite the fact that 90% of British homes are carpeted, UK carpet manufacturers are not fazed by the reports, pointing out that the States has ’different climatic conditions, different air conditioning, different types of carpet that are mostly synthetic, different pesticides and different household products.’

Concludes Mike Hardiman, chief executive of the Carpet Foundation, ‘There is no evidence whatsoever that carpets made in Britain pose any problem at all. This research is, I’m afraid, absolute nonsense.’

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