12 October 1999
The Honourable Wyatt Creech MP
Minister of Health
WELLINGTON
Dear Minister,
In October 1998 I wrote an open letter to Dr Pat Tuohy at the Ministry of Health, informing him of the success of
mattress-wrapping for cot death prevention - from the time I commenced publicising mattress-wrapping in late 1994, there
had been no reported cot deaths on mattresses wrapped to my specifications.
A years has passed since I wrote to Dr Tuohy, and still there have been no reported cot deaths on mattresses wrapped to
my specifications. And still your Ministry refuses to endorse mattress-wrapping for cot death prevention.
During the years 1995 to 1998 inclusive, over 350 cot deaths occurred in New Zealand. But there have been no reported
cot deaths among the tens of thousands of babies who have slept on BabeSafe products or on mattresses correctly wrapped
in polythene sheeting.
I call on you to endorse mattress-wrapping for cot death prevnetion immediately. If you won't, please tell us how many
more years of success with mattress-wrapping need to pass before the Ministry of Health will endorse it?
Yours sincerely,
T J Sprott