Poison Mattresses

As of July 1, 2007, all U.S. mattresses are required to be highly flame retardant, to the extent that they won’t catch on fire if exposed to a blow torch. It is also compulsory that all mattresses in the UK are also treated with  fire retardant. This means that the manufacturers are dousing them with highly toxic flame-retardant chemicals like polybrominated diphenyl ether, better known as PBDE, which do NOT have to be disclosed in any way.

PBDEs, which have been banned in Canada, Europe and several states, build up in your body over time, and what you absorb or inhale does not go away. This is concerning not only because of the health problems PBDE is associated with (brain and reproductive damage, decreased sperm quality, thyroid problems and even cancer at high levels), but also because of how pervasive these chemicals have become.

PBDEs are not only in mattresses, they’re also in furniture and countless other household products. Not surprisingly, the chemicals are now showing up in breast milk, blood tests and even umbilical-cord blood and livers of fetuses.

Other flame-retardant chemicals currently approved for use in mattresses include:

• Boric acid, a toxic respiratory irritant used to kill cockroaches
• Antimony, a metal that may be more toxic than mercury
• Formaldehyde, which causes cancer

“They have maybe a cup and a half or two cups of this material on the mattress. They sprinkle it over the top or they put it into some kind of a coating on the mattress. And this can make people very, very ill,” Dr. Rapp says.

Think about it.

You spend from six to nine hours every night with your face in close proximity to your mattress, breathing in these chemicals. And if your children jump on the bed, or you bounce on your mattress, even more of these toxins can be released into the air.

What are the Risks of Sleeping on a Chemically Treated Mattress?

The Consumer Products Safety Commission (CPSC) has tested the fire-retardant chemicals currently used in mattresses and found the risks to be “insignificant.”

However, they also found that the chemicals do, in fact, leach from the mattresses. A person sleeping on a chemically treated mattress will absorb .8 mg of antimony every night, an amount that is 27 times more than the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says is safe.

Five-year-old children, meanwhile, will absorb .5 mg of antimony every night, according to CPSC, which is 63 times more than the EPA’s safety limit!

Given the fact that antimony accumulates in your body over time, this could clearly present a significant risk over time.

Meanwhile, the CPSC study did not include children under 5 in their study because crib mattresses are usually covered in vinyl, and it was assumed the chemicals would not pass through this material. European scientists, however, have found that antimony leaches through vinyl on crib mattresses and can be absorbed by infants. And this is not even including the toxic impact other toxic chemicals in mattresses, like boric acid and formaldehyde.

The only UK supplier of chemical & fire retardant free mattresses is from Abaca Organic Living. I recommend their Latex Ramsey model as it has no springs. If you want to know why sprung mattresses can be bad for you then click    Just mention my name Roy Riggs and you will receive a 10% discount on any of their products. Either phone them 01269 598490 or go to their website  Abaca Organic Mattress