Flame Retardatants in Couches and Mattresses Flame Retardants in Couches Keep in mind that these companies use toxic foams, glues, fabric finishes and possibly particle boards. Companies selling green upholstered furniture generally do not use flame retardants. Always ask, but I have not found one that does. For a list of totally green, non-toxic sofa companies see my post on non-toxic furniture. There are many companies making organic or natural fiber carpets, such as wool. And for rugs, some good options include cotton, rattan or jute. Carpets should explicitly state that they use all natural materials. I go over the greenest carpet companies in this post. Conventional types from big box stores contain a long list of chemicals including flame retardants. However, many big box stores now carry carpets with the Green Label Plus certification which means the carpets emit low levels of VOCs. Always ask about FRs, since these are not considered VOCs.I have a post on window coverings with chemical-free options.
Flame Retardants in Insulation HBCD is typically used in polystyrenes, in concentrations of up to 1% in EPS, and up to 5% in XPS. TCPP is typically used in polyisocyanurate foams (up to 10%). There is no EPS or XPS insulation without flame retardants on the market currently. Almost all spray foams made in the US contain FRs according to Treehugger, usually TCPP () Natural insulation options in . Apple phased out brominated flame retardants (BFRs) in 2008 but uses "safer" unspecified flame retarding chemicals. Motorola is BFR-free and Sony has phased it out of some products (). How much these can leach out of electronics is not clear. With furniture, it is when the particles become dust bound that they become the biggest problem. Flame retardants become mobile in dust as opposed to gas. So keeping a dust free home is of utmost importance. HEPA vacuum is the best way to deal with the dust if you have conventional furniture, carpets and curtains.
The Nilfisk brand is recommended by the experts. You can also add a HEPA filter (or even better, this one) to a Shop-Vac. (High-efficiency filter bags are also needed to catch all the fine dust.) (which some people say has a plastic smell), and . A decent one that is a more affordable is this . I have heard pretty good experiences with Honeywell considering the price.The following blog post was written by Rachel Koller, a long-time WTC volunteer, on her experiences while shopping for a new mattress for her daughter. When my daughter turned 3 we knew it was time to get her into a twin bed. This was a challenge not because we worried about her wandering around in the middle of the night without the confines of a crib, but because it involved buying a new mattress, and we are picky consumers. We have “lofty” goals when buying furniture: avoid chemical flame retardants, and protect indoor air quality. We also believe that a mattress should be comfortable, durable, and affordable.
Would this be too much to ask? I know the best options out there use natural materials, like wool, cotton, and natural latex. But they are spendy – starting at around $700 for a twin, and I wanted to see if there were options that were less expensive, but still addressed my chemical concerns. First I went to Ikea, hoping to find an affordable solution. I wanted a mattress immediately, not one that would have to sit in our garage offgassing for 6 months before it could come inside. This means avoiding PVC, polyurethane foam, and memory foam. The lower-priced Ikea mattresses had enough synthetic materials that they didn’t pass my sniff test. I could have purchased their Sultan Erfjord natural/synthetic latex combo but it still cost $699, and I’d rather support a smaller USA based mattress company at that price. My husband and I had been sleeping on a natural latex mattress from Soaring Heart Natural Bed Company for years, so I knew they might be an option for us.
Straight from Ikea we drove to their shop in Seattle (where they make all the products), and found a kids cotton/wool futon that was appealing. The only downside is that the cotton is treated with boric acid powder for flame retardancy. They do make an organic cotton version without any boric acid powder, but it is double the price. We ended up with the kids cotton/wool futon – spent $365 on the futon, then more for the cotton mattress pad and wool pad (to protect from the inevitable accidents). For alternative mattress protection, we did buy Ikea’s PVC-free mattress protector which is cheap and effective, with the idea we’d use it as backup while my daughter is learning to potty train through the night. Something I really love about Soaring Heart is that they can rebuild or “fluff” your futon in the future, right in their Seattle workshop. It’s a product that can be refurbished as needed, instead of heading straight for the landfill when it gets tired. The futon worked for us because 1) my daughter is petite, and they said people under 150 lbs won’t feel the bed slats under the futon, 2) I’ll make the effort in the summer to air it out in the hot sun (which makes a big difference in keeping it comfortable), and 3) we believe that unlike parents’ bodies which are prone to aches and pains
, kids’ lithe bodies can do fine on a firmer surface. The bottom line is, everyone has their own idea of what defines a comfortable mattress – soft, firm, springy… and that influences a purchase. If money were no object, I’d jump on the all natural materials mattress with no chemical flame retardants, but for those on a budget compromises must be made. Hopefully someday we’ll have many more options for affordable, chemical-free mattresses. Till then, the Soaring Heart cotton/wool futon will work for us, and my daughter happily jumped into her new big bed! Here at WTC, Staff Scientist Erika Schreder also sleeps on a Soaring Heart mattress, while Field Organizer Anna Dyer sleeps on a Naturepedic mattress.Critics have targeted IKEA for years on issues ranging from its amorphous profit and non-profit corporate (and tax) structure, its questionable sourcing of wood for its product line, and even the background of its founder, Ingvar Kamprad. A debate over IKEA’s business practices and environmental impact raises passions on both sides.
In fairness, the company has made some solid environmental choices: they’ve eliminated plastic bags from its check-out aisles, eliminated polyvinylchloride (PVC) from almost all of its products, and reduced packaging overall. Now the’ve announced another solid move: the company is phasing out a toxic flame retardant from its furniture.The flame retardant problems is a difficult one for IKEA to solve. Despite the fact that flame retardants contain a skin-absorbable carcinogenic, manufacturers who wish to sell in California must include them in order to comply with state laws. Interestingly, IKEA’s announcement comes just one day after a scathing article in Slate Magazine that questions why furniture contains such high levels of these chemicals in the first place.The trouble started when Slate reporter Florence Williams tore the packaging of a new IKEA futon that she ordered online, only to be bowled over by the noxious smell that permeated her basement. Williams started researching the smell and found out that the substance was chlorinated tris, the dreaded carcinogen that was once in children’s pajamas until studies shown that it could be absorbed by skin.
Despite this danger to human health the American chemical industry has lobbied Congress and state legislatures to mandate fireproofing of furniture and other consumer products for years. The results are long lasting, and not in a good way: years after some carcinogens were banned, they still persist in the food chain and in may even cause chronic disease. (As this went to press, we cannot confirm or deny that any chemical residue can be found in the famous Swedish meatballs that IKEA serves in its brightly lit cafeterias.)The upshot is that when Williams contacted IKEA, the company’s representatives explained that chlorinated tris will be phased by August 2010. The replacement: “an organo-phosphorous compound which gets incorporated into the polymer matrix of the foam filling.” If you think that term is difficult to decipher, then imagine how safe that replacement may be.IKEA is boxed in by regulations that lawmakers may have been passed with good intentions, but of course are backed by industries who benefit from such a mandate—which is especially absurd because those fire retardants do not stop fire, they delay it—by a few minutes.