Thailand to strictly control safety of rubber pillows, mattresses

BANGKOK, May 3 (TNA) - Thailand's Office of Atoms for Peace (OAP) is working together with other relevant agencies towards the enforcement of regulations and legal standards strictly to effectively control the safety quality of locally-produced rubber pillows and mattresses. An OAP official made the remarks on Friday, after a meeting between OAP and other relevant agencies, including the Ministry of Commerce's Department of International Trade Promotion, the Rubber Authority of Thailand, the Thailand Institute of Nuclear Technology (Public Organization), the Thailand Research Fund and the Thai Industrial Standards Institute, was held at the Thai Ministry of Commerce on the outskirts of Bangkok. "OAP is ready to cooperate with all the other relevant agencies for the strict enforcement of regulations and legal standards in order to ensure that all locally-produced rubber pillows and mattresses are free from any radioactive substance or element and fully safe for consumers and the environment", the OAP official said. The OAP official acknowledged his office had found part of locally-produced rubber pillows were stuffed with the monazite mineral, in which thorium, a radioactive element, is a compound, explaining that thorium, when decomposed, can bring about radon, another radioactive element, that is unsafe for consumers in the long run despite in any minimal amount unless it is approved by any specialized authority. The OAP official cited the exemption of the monazite ore from existing legal regulations due to its low level- radioactivity as a loophole and the cause of the problem. An official of the Thai Industrial Standards Institute (TISI) then told journalists that TISI will consider a proposal, raised at the meeting, that TISI has all rubber pillows and mattresses produced or sold in the country under its strict regulation to assure they will be no longer stuffed with any radioactive element or substance, or will be labeled with a warning statement or sign, for the sake of consumers' safety or proper awareness. Meanwhile, the Thailand Institute of Nuclear Technology (Public Organization) announced that the institute has its laboratory and personnel ready to serve local business operators in testing and reporting, based on the international standard, whether their rubber products are contained with any radioactive element or substance. Friday's meeting was chaired by Wittayakorn Maneenetr, Deputy Director-General of the Department of International Trade Promotion, to discuss the problem and its solution in response to recent media reports in South Korea that some rubber pillows imported from Thailand were stuffed with radon. (TNA)