Whenever my husband is away on business my kids also “relocate”… into our bed, that is. Each night I find myself planted in the middle of our king-sized bed snuggled between my “hot water bottle” kids.
During his recent trip, I could feel myself sleeping on what has become a hump in the middle of the bed and literally worried about rolling onto one of the kids. It became quite obvious that our mattress has seen better days since we’ve both apparently made our “impression”.
The choice of a new mattress is a simple one for me, especially after researching the purchase of our son’s mattress not so long ago, but I realized it’s also an opportunity to again share some pretty serious information.
Here is the concern: Beginning July 1, 2007, Federal Fire Retardant Regulations mandated mattress manufacturers to INCREASE the levels of toxic fire retardants, but DO NOT require them to list the ingredients in the contents!
And what do these fire retardants contain?… boric acid, melamine, antimony and formaldehyde… all chemicals linked to cancer. Antimony alone causes heart muscle damage and a single dermal application has killed rabbits in laboratory tests. Additional tests on Memory Foam mattresses even detected 61 chemical emissions and off-gassing from a single mattress. Think about how many hours you spend sleeping on your mattress… every … single … night. All the while, you are inhaling these toxic off-gassing chemicals. I find it frightening, AND infuriating, especially where our children are concerned.
If you’d like to take a look at my original post and view a supporting news report, you can find it here. Or maybe you’d just like to know to answer…
For us, the ONLY answer is an organic mattress. They’re made of pure organic wool, 100% organic cotton covers and 100% natural latex cores, providing even better fire retardancy than the chemicals… naturally! For our son, we selected a Savvy Rest mattress from Healthy Home Sleep Gallery (and we DIDN’T need a prescription!… more on that here). Was it more than the common mattress store brands? Sure, it was… (the cheapest method to comply with the fire retardant regulations is to simply spray on the chemicals!), but was it worth it when we made a new mattress purchase for our son?… without a doubt.
Now that it’s nearing time to replace our own mattress, I can’t imagine choosing anything other than organic for our own health… but also because it’s only a matter of time before my two precious “hot water bottles” plan another sleepover too, and I want ALL of us to rest and breath easy (and healthy)!
I’m not really sure I understand the fire retardant laws. A fire requires an ignition source, and by the time it gets to my bed, I’m likely to be in big trouble already. I’m pretty sure the laws were created in a day when many people smoked routinely in their homes and even in their beds. I remember a big push to get people to not smoke in bed. I think their were probably lots of fires and deaths caused by that, and fire retardant mattresses (and kids pajamas) were seen as a solution. I’m not sure that makes sense any more.
Hi Doreen,
Ai yi yi! Another good post! It’s amazing what you find out when you need to replace something and I for one, appreciate knowing this in particular. I was thinking of replacing our mattress with a memory foam mattress but this has changed my mind. It looks like I need to do a little more research too.
.-= Kimberly Aardal´s last blog ..Great Value in an Exceptional Chair =-.
Hi – I, too, was freaked out by the questionable chemicals in mattresses. We solved the problem by transitioning to all natural cotton futons. They are really comfortable, but somewhat different from mattresses. And they can be less expensive than organic mattresses. We just got a new one for my son and his bed is so cozy! But – much like your kids – all three of ours end up in bed with us by morning! Luckily, we have a king size futon. Anyhow, it’s another option I thought I would share.
Hello,
I knew that they add chemicals in the mattresses as fire retardants, but had no idea that these chemicals can lead to cancer and other such deadly diseases!!
Thinking about the children sleeping on such mattresses gives me the chills!
Thank you for such an informative article.. it was a good read. I am thinking of buying a new organic mattress for my room now!
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Great information. Do you know what mattress you’re going to get for yourself? Seeing that you bought a Savvy Rest for your son, I’d definitely recommend checking out their Serenity organic mattress.
It truly is scary the types of chemicals we sleep on nightly – hopefully with more posts like these, a higher number of people will realize the effects of conventional mattresses.