And when asked 'What happened?'SleepGuy wrote:The website (and ebay store) are closed and nothing will be available for sale pending completion of another round of R&D process. Stay posted.
I know on the other threads, there were several very vocal people who questioned why I did what I did, some who are still vocally questioning:SleepGuy wrote: I decided to pause the business and turn the project over to an outstanding medical product developer/consultant to revisit the R&D process (cross all the Ts etc.). That's all.
I believe even Brett is questioning his products current safety, or he would not have taken the drastic measures he has, if he felt beyond a doubt it was a safe as he was portraying it to be. I believe his actions speak volumes more then any of his evasive answers to my questions ever did.Sleepy-eyes wrote:Good for you! It's a shame, but some doubt the effectiveness and safety of your product, Bret. Hope the results will put to rest the issues brought to focus by just a few on the forum.
Anyone can think what they like about what I did, but before you all go to bed tonight, think about why I did it. I have no vested interest either way, I spent my own personal time, took insults from various posters all because I cared about the wellbeing of fellow forum members and all xPAP users who may have come across his product. Many other people on this board and other sleep boards had raised similar issues in that past that were never resolved; they only dropped the issue when they decided they did what they could and the negativity from some became apparent.
The next time a automobile manufacture takes a short cut or a drug manufacture falsifies data to obtain approval, I guess some of you are 'adult' enough to think for yourself and make your own decisions, right? Because we are all adults? Kids don't manufacture cars and drugs. Or do you want someone who is aware of what is going to question it? To not take 'everything is fine' for an answer and forget about it. Do you want that person to keep saying something until someone listens? To alert the proper authorities, if other methods of resolving the issue are not working?
I know right now, many of us are concerned about the pet food we are feeding our 'fur children', as a result events related to Menu Foods. As terrible as it seems, I lived through something much worse here in the state of Michigan in the early 1970's, which I assume Brett, as an environmental attorney, is well aware. It affected not only our animals, livestock in the case, but anyone who ate meat, poultry, or milk from contaminated animals for a period of several years. It is something I live with every single day, not only in tragic memories, but as toxic chemical within my body, as do most residents of Michigan. We unwilling became the biggest human experiment on the effects of PPB, because of lack of concern for safety.
That doesn't tell the whole story, how it was only a small number of bags of PBB that caused such a wide spread problem. It doesn't tell how massive pits were dug, not only at the state's hastily approved land fill, and later SuperFund site, but also on farms to bury the contaminated livestock, which have contaminated ground water and water ways of Michigan. It doesn't tell how affected farms were restricted as to what they could raise for many years after. I was only a child when it happened, but I remember how it changed so many of the neighboring farming families. Some of them never seemed to recover fully, and how many did develop mysteries medical issues and cancer. We were lucky, our farms were deemed 'clean', which made it more valuable, but made us different in the eyes of our neighbors who lost everything. It was still enough for my father; all livestock was sold and we focused agriculture crops only after that.Sometime in May or June 1973, the Michigan Chemical Co. accidentally shipped a fire retardant with the brand name of Firemaster to Farm Bureau Services, a supplier for thousands of Michigan farmers, in place of Nutrimaster, a cattle feed containing magnesium oxide. Firemaster was a brand name for PBB, a four-year-old chemical used to reduce the flammability of plastics and electrical circuits....The mistake apparently happened at a time when Michigan Chemical ran out of preprinted bags and hand-lettered the trade names of the two products in black. The similarity of product names or perhaps the smudging of the letters was all it took to make the first link in a disastrous chain of events. In October 1973, the state Department of Agriculture’s head diagnostician inspected the sickened dairy herd of Fred Halbert of Battle Creek and at first suspected lead poisoning. When tests for lead proved negative, the department sought help from Michigan State University and laboratories in Wisconsin, Iowa and New York to isolate the contaminant in the feed. Not until May 1974 did the department determine, with help from Halbert’s son Rick, a chemical engineer, that PBB was the poison. The department then tested feed and farm products across the state. By 1975 the state had quarantined more than 500 farms and condemned for slaughter over 17,000 cattle, 3,415 hogs, 1.5 million chickens, and 4.8 million eggs. PBB was removed from the market. In the 1980s, the state health department confirmed that approximately 95 per cent of Michigan’s population had residues of PBB in fat tissue.
Thirty years later: The lessons of PBBs
Along the way people tried to speak up, to prevent the problem from happening and to alert others when it became apparent something was wrong. One of the workers at feed plant questioned his supervisor because the bags didn't look the same, but was told 'not to worry, its same stuff we always use'. He still worried and went to his supervisors boss, who told him 'not worry, its not your job'. So he didn't worry, why should he? He'd been told not to.
Next came Fred Halbert, the farmer who first noticed problems with his milk cattle herd in the Fall of 1973, mentioned above. When he contacted the State Dept of Ag, he was told 'don't worry'. He continued to hear 'don't worry', which at some point turned to 'you're doing something wrong to cause all these problems' from both the Dept of Ag & the manufacture of the contaminated feed. He heard it so much, but he never stopped worrying, realizing if it was affecting his heard, it had to be affecting others and ultimately becoming part of the human food supply. With the help of his chemical engineer son, he spent $5000 of his own money to have scientific test run that proved what the problem was. I know my 25cent allowance seemed like a lot then, and I'm sure some of you can remember what $5000 meant in 1973 dollars, and what that could have bought besides testing of a product he was told 'not to worry about', especially when his livelihood was in jeopardy. Heck, even the two companies responsible were only fined $4000 each by the government, as a result of the incident, so I guess not worrying is cheaper then worrying. At one point, after the government had finally started to worry in 1974, they feed the cattle feed to mice, which all died. You know what the feed company said, 'don't worry, of course they died, they are mice, not cattle, what did you expect if you feed them cattle feed?' Ever find a dead mouse from eating 'human food', unless it was attached to a trap?
Maybe having lived through that does make prone to worrying, to question more then others, especially when I ask very specific questions about the safety of a product and instead of reasonable answers, I'm told 'don't worry, just trust us.' How many of you are having problems now trusting what you feed your pets is truly safe, especially if it was manufactured by MenuFoods? Who knew all those trusted names didn't really make their own product, but all relied on one manufacture?
My worrying about the PurSleep In Line Diffuser is nothing compared to what Mr Halbert did, but the sentiment is the same. Yes we are all adults, yes we can make decisions for ourselves, but we do best when we have the support of each other. We can't all be experts in all things, so we have to rely on each other and look out for someone other then ourselves sometimes. We can't rely that every product we purchase is safe, but we can hope the company making worries enough to care about its consumers and not only their bottom line, and if that fails, we can hope someone will do the right thing and contact the proper regulatory authorities to address the issues.
I know I'm sleeping better at night lately. I hope Brett is able to also.
