Toxic Chemicals and Fire Retardants In Mattresses Making Us Sick

Did you know that Fire Retardant chemicals are used in 99% of all bedding products? This includes the mattresses, pillows, sheet sets, quilts, blankets and your p.j’s. The same goes for baby and children’s sleeping bags, grow suits and pajamas’s. So are, Toxic Chemicals and Fire Retardants In Mattresses Making Us Sick?

Yes it seems they are indeed! Fire Retardant chemicals are linked to SIDS, Cancer and a whole host of illnesses and allergies.

See Mattress Wrapping To Prevent SIDS This campaign was started by the late, highly respected Professor Jim Sprott. Professor Sprott has long been aware of the dangers of Fire Retardant Chemicals in bedding and has been campaigning to get parents to wrap their babies mattresses in a specialized inert plastic sleeve to prevent the Fire Retardant Chemicals off-gassing near baby.

The only way to avoid these fire retardants, is to buy certified organic, mattresses, bedding and clothes.

Why Are We Holding Back On Converting To Organic Mattresses

In recent years people have embraced eating organic food and using organic skincare, but still many people hold back on spending the extra dollars to sleep on organic bedding. Considering how much time we spend in our beds, converting over to a safer, organic, chemical-free, mattress really is a worthwhile investment in our health.

On average an adult sleeps in a bed for 8 hours a night and babies and young children for 12 hours, or even longer, if you include their day naps, this all adds up to a huge amount of accumulative, exposure to some very toxic chemicals.

Toxic Fire Retardant Chemicals In Mattresses

Read this eye-opening article by Chem-Tox.com on a study done on mice to measure the toxic emissions coming out of crib mattresses.

Here is a list of allowed chemicals in bedding products, according to the US Consumer Products Safety Commission;

Formaldehyde
Decabromodiphenyl Oxide
Vinylidene Chloride
Boric Acid
Zinc Borate
Antimony Trioxide
Melamine

These are all highly toxic chemicals! How on earth can they be allowed in bedding products?

The Toxic Materials Being Used To Make Mattresses

Mattresses can be made up of all types of different synthetic materials, including the newest product, memory foam.

Mattresses are commonly made from petroleum based materials and other synthetic materials. There is not much “natural” in most conventional mattresses.

Then to layer the toxic load, people cover their mattresses with toxic PVC mattresses protectors and use polyester filled pillows and quilts. Your blankets and sheet set may either be made from pure cotton, or a polyester blend, but even those that are made using 100% cotton, if it is not certified organic cotton, then it has been grown using pesticides & fungicides and dyed with toxic fabric colourants.

People Are Getting Sick From Sleeping On New Mattresses

There have been lot’s of stories in the news about the health hazards of bedding products, read this report by CBN News- ‘Is Your Mattress Making You Sick?’, people are waking up after purchasing a new mattress with symptoms such as headaches, flu symptoms, dizziness, short of breath, sinus and other allergy related symptoms e.g sore throat, itchy eyes and more. Here is another article Chem-Tox has written that is also worth a read, “New Mattress/Bed Illness Report”.

It makes perfect sense that people are actually waking up sick from sleeping on toxic mattresses and bed linen, as the volatile chemicals continue to ‘off-gas’ throughout the night and your lying right against them and in between them.

There is an absolutely fantastic website People For Clean Beds. org, this site is purely dedicated to pushing for a law banning the toxic Fire Retardant Chemicals in mattresses and bedding products and it is filled with loads and loads of studies and reports. If you don’t believe there is any real problem’s with Fire Retardant Chemicals, then this site will soon change your mind. When you weigh up the chance of being G-D forbid in a fire and the Fire Retardant Chemicals in your bedding products actually saving your life, against the chances of you getting ill from nightly concentrated exposure to these toxic, Fire Retardant Chemicals, you would definitely have to sway strongly towards the later.

The Solution! Sleep On An Organic Mattress – Healthy Bedding Tips

Simple swap over to organic bedding! Look at it as a investment in your future health. Forgo the new high definition 3D TV and buy an organic mattress and bed set. A healthy sleeping environment is so important and something that should not be overlooked!

From the moment your baby is born sleep them on a wrapped mattress, even if the mattress is organic, as it can’t hurt and it doubles as a mattress protector, as opposed to using a toxic PVC protector, that would off-gas phthalates.

Use 100% pure organic cotton to sleep your baby, your children and if possible yourself.

Buy a certified organic cotton mattresses and certified organic pillows, blankets, quilts and sheet sets.

Yes organic mattresses do tend to be pricey, but they are still a lot cheaper than some of the high quality memory foam & springed mattresses out there.

The price to make an organic mattresses and bedding products is a lot more for the manufacturer, hence the price tag, but in contrast to the hefty price on “brand” name mattresses, the money you spend goes into creating a pure, superior, all natural product, as opposed to funding, flashy advertising campaigns!

Here is a list of some of my favourite organic bedding brands:

Organature – make certified organic mattresses, bedlinen, clothing & more etc. We personally use their mattresses and bedding for our family and have long before we started livingsafe.com.au

Uma Organics – organic bedlinen

Blessed Earth – bedlinen and organic clothing & more

PureBaby – organic baby bed linen and baby and kids clothing

Organic Textiles Australia – organic bed linen and more.

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Some other natural health and safety articles you may find interesting are:

Toxic Chemicals In Baby Personal Care Products & Choosing Safer Baby Skincare

What To Avoid During Pregnancy & What Is Safe

Mattress Wrapping To Prevent Cot Death

Baby Proofing and Child Proofing Your Home and Garden

Toxic Chemicals In Baby Mattresses

Toxic Chemicals and Fire Retardants in Mattresses Making Us Sick

How To Live A Cruelty Free Lifestyle Checklist