It’s heartwarming to see expectant parents prepare for a child. From layette to nursery decor, their choices show protectiveness and care. Yet the sweetest lullaby may hold a sour note—if the baby is sleeping on a chemically treated mattress.
Unfortunately, most babies are.
Some experts believe that laws designed to protect children from burns in the event of a fire may backfire. To meet federal flammability requirements, most manufacturers use chemical flame retardants that may have long-term health consequences. Some of these chemicals are already known to be toxic or carcinogenic; others have not been studied sufficiently.
According to an August 9, 2009 report in The Washington Post, few industrial chemicals that have been introduced into consumer goods and the environment have been tested adequately for safety. The nonprofit Environmental Working Group has found an average of 200 industrial chemicals in the umbilical cords of newborns.
Harvard School of Public Health researchers have reported that the proliferation of industrial chemicals is causing a “silent pandemic” of brain diseases such as autism and attention deficit disorder in children. Newborns are the most vulnerable to pollution, the researchers say, because their brains are still developing.
Yet children’s mattresses also must meet federal fire test requirements. Most conventional mattresses—crib or adult—contain fabrics that have been treated with a chemical flame retardant. True, these will slow flames in the rare event of a fire. But meanwhile, night after night, children breathe in the off-gassing chemicals—newborns for as many as 12 hours a day.
This leaves parents in the sobering position of needing to judge which poses a graver risk to their sleeping babies—a potential fire, or long-term exposure to yet another of the toxic chemicals that saturate our environment and sabotage our health.
It will take huge resources to prove a cause-and-effect relationship between specific fire-block chemicals and a specific disease or disorder. This year, the Government Accountability Office flagged chemical regulation as an urgent priority that the White House and Congress should address, and for the first time, the chemical industry has agreed to share health and exposure data with the EPA. It will take time and enormous funding to make the case for increased consumer protections, however.
Fortunately, there already is an alternative to toxic flame retardants that can allow a mattress to meet the national flammability standards.
Wool fiber is naturally very slow to ignite. Choosing a mattress made with wool or a wool-filled casing is the first choice parents can make. There’s further safety in choosing organic wool. But, buyer beware—because the industry is so loosely monitored, many companies that claim to make an organic mattress actually use ordinary wool that has been sanitized with harsh chemicals.
Savvy Rest and Natura are two companies that manufacture organic mattresses using certified organic wool.
Natural mattresses can ease grownup worries about safe sleeping for their little ones—so parents, too, can sleep more like babies.
Michael Penny is the founder of Savvy Rest www.savvyrest.com/>Organic Mattresses and an expert on body dynamics and sleep issues. An entrepreneur and a yoga practitioner, Penny brings a unique perspective to the natural mattress industry.
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