The Cot Death Cover-Up

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The Cot Death Cover-Up?

by Dr Jim Sprott

THE COT DEATH COVER-UP? is the culmination of over fifteen years of

cot death research by the author, a highly respected consulting

chemist and forensic scientist from New Zealand.

In 1986 Sprott arrived at the conclusion that babies were succumbing

to cot death because of inadvertent gaseous poisoning by an

extremely toxic nerve gas generated by microbiological action on

something within the baby's cot, but he wasn't able to identify the

gas. Then in 1989 consulting scientist Barry , working

independently in Britain came to the same conclusion and in addition

identified the offending gases. It was not long before the two

teamed-up to work on what they describe as the "

Hypothesis " .

According to Sprott the three identified gases that were generated

from mattresses on which babies died of SIDS are " phosphine, arsine

and stibine, all extremely toxic 'nerve gases'. They are produced by

the action of the otherwise harmless fungus Scopulariopsis

brevicaulis on substances containing phosphorus, arsenic and

antimony. These elements are often present in cot and other

mattresses. " These odourless but intensely poisonous gases, with

toxicities about 100 times as great as hydrogen cyanide (prussic

acid), act upon the baby's nervous system to inhibit breathing and

heart function.

The problem, in fact, has been first identified as far back as the

1880's when the mystery of thousands of unexpected child deaths

throughout Western Europe and the UK was solved by Italian chemist

Gosio. He had discovered that deaths were due to a toxic gas, arsine

and/or alkyl homologues generated by the micro-organism

Scopulariopsis brevicaulis (then known as Penicillium brevicaules).

It acted upon copper arsenate, used in green pigments in wallpaper,

and arsenious oxide, used as a preservative in wallpaper glue.

THE COT DEATH COVER-UP? contains ample evidence supporting Sprott

and 's findings. Among the many graphs it contains one

that demonstrates the rapid drop in cot deaths in Britain in 1986-

1994. The graph, based on official statistics, shows that when the

findings were first made public in mid-1989 the SIDS rate started to

fall immediately, dropping 35 per cent by the time the

official " Back to Sleep " campaign was launched in December 1991. In

the period 1989-1994, Britain saw a staggering 70 per cent reduction

in the SIDS rate.

Despite these remarkable results, Sprott and were

fiercely opposed by their respective country's health authorities

and official SIDS groups. Their struggle for official recognition of

their findings is reminiscent to that of other independent SIDS

researchers such as Dr Archie Kalokerinos and Dr Glen Dettman, who

had proved that severe depletion of a child's vitamin C level,

precipitated by various insults including childhood vaccinations,

could predispose it to SIDS.

The author says that the book is not aimed at academics (although

its first-class material should suffice their snobbery), but is

aimed at parents - parents who have to suffer the consequences of a

system that puts them and their babies last in the " war " against

this human tragedy known as SIDS.

Published in 1996 by Penguin Books (NZ). Available through most

major bookstores.