They totally reject the toxic gas explanation about it - but say they can't provide any rationale themselves. In view of the dramatic reduction in cot death since my mattress-wrapping campaign began, one would think they would listen. Instead they put up objections to mattress-wrapping which are obvious canards. First, they say that babies sleeping on polythene-covered mattresses might suffocate. Actually, accidental suffocation among babies is extremely rare.
Babies can raise their heads from a very young age.
Certainly it is possible for babies to suffocate if their faces become trapped in very thin plastic, but the plastic stipulated for mattress-wrapping is thick, clear polythene, at least 125 microns. Babies do not suffocate on a film of this thickness. The second purported objection to mattress-wrapping is that babies might overheat, and overheating has been identified as a cot death risk factor. It's a meaningless statement. And yet despite seven years' investigation into the toxic gas theory, no-one has disproved it or even been able to advance a valid criticism of it.