This post contains no added flame retardant chemicals
Because flame retardants have no place in furniture, much less the Antarctic (Toxic Chemicals, Part Four)
My four year old is chattering away incessantly on her toy phone, her little voice rattling off a string of digits that resemble a phone number, with serious nods and the occasional “mmhmm.” Then she looks up, imploring me to call the fireman because her doll got a big boo-boo in a fire.
I guess it’s not that surprising of a request, really. We’ve talked about fire safety in our home, and she’s at the age where she’s hyper-observant to passing vehicles and distant sirens. But still, I’m a little shook. The better part of a decade ago, I had to make the exact same call on a not-exactly-wooden phone when my now-husband was injured in a house fire. He is long since recovered, and it’s not like the incident keeps me up at night (I have plenty of other anxiety for that!). But still, I’m not so sure I want to make the pretend call for a doll.
This is the part of the story where I’m supposed to rope you in with the details; the acrid smell of house-wares burning, the disorienting feeling that you can’t see anything but the flames. The sense that time has slowed to a crawl, where seconds feel like minutes. But I’ll be honest: I’ve written about plenty of trauma in the past, but the point of this particular story, at least in this context of this series, isn’t really about the fire. It’s about what I noticed in the aftermath.
Perhaps I have a strange sense of ‘interest,’ but what I found interesting (and overwhelming) in the aftermath of the fire was the clean-up. What burned, and what didn’t? Stainless steel pots were charred, but mostly intact, some arguably even salvageable. Wood cabinets were damaged, but could mostly be sanded over and re-stained. But anything and everything plastic— right down to the polyester clothes my partner was wearing— that had been in the path of the flames burned.
I had already been self-proclaimed environmentally minded minimalist prior to this incident. But this was the first time that I really made the connection that the materials in our built environment mattered. And unfortunately, the last half century has brought a hefty range of synthetics and chemicals into our everyday lives.
Flame Retardants with the Best of Intentions (at least originally)
In 1975, a California regulation known as Technical Bulletin 117 required upholstered furniture to contain flame-retardant chemicals. The law itself was likely well-intentioned; concern about people falling asleep, lit cigarettes in hand, and their home catching fire led lawmakers to act. California is a large enough market than the entire nation followed suit, even mandating flame retardant chemicals in most children’s pajamas. In fact, some studies have found up to 11% of the weight of a piece of furniture now comes from flame retardant chemicals like tris phospate.
At this point, I’m willing to bet you can guess the problem: Flame-retardant chemicals are toxic. In fact, exposure to flame retardants is connected to everything from thyroid issues to increased risk of premature birth. Children are particularly at risk, likely because they spend more time crawling around on floors and putting things in their mouth. In fact, a 2016 study found that tested the presence of different flame retardants in urine for mother-toddler pairs found that “children’s DPHP and BDCIPP levels, on average, were 5.9 times and 15 times those of their mothers.” For children, high exposure to flame retardants has been linked to hyper-activity, memory issues, and even a 3-5 point loss in IQ.
Many of these chemicals are also bio-accumulative, meaning they build up in the body over time. Flame retardants have been found in more than 150 wildlife species across all continents, including killer whales, endangered chimpanzees in Ugandan national parks, and even penguins, sea sponges, and worms in Antartica.
And here’s the kicker: These flame retardant chemicals don’t even work as advertised. Regulations only require flame retardant-treated furniture to withstand open flames for a few seconds (hardly enough time to make a real difference), and some tests have demonstrated that flame-retardant treated foam furniture burns just the same (besides an abundance of toxic fumes) as non-FR treated furniture.
Even firefighters are speaking out against flame retardants, citing toxic plumes of black smoke during fires and increasing cases of rare cancer among their professional ranks as the proverbial “canary in a coal mine.” As the director of the International Association of Fire Fighter’s safety division explained to The Guardian, flame retardants do “little to prevent fires for most uses and instead makes the blazes smokier and more toxic for victims, and especially for first responders.”
But the danger doesn’t just exist for firefighters. It may look like the flame retardants in our foam furniture are safely under wraps, literally, because the foam is covered by fabric upholstery. But it turns out that we are exposed to these flame retardants in the air we breathe, as well as household dust— never mind the fumes we would inhale if our furniture actually did catch fire.
Despite growing public pressure and an endorsement from firefighters’ unions for a ban on flame retardants, the United States continues to allow flame retardants in furniture. Lobbyists from the American Chemistry Council, which represent businesses such as ExxonMobil, DuPont (responsible for hiding the dangers of PFAS since the 1960s, as well as dumping forever chemicals into drinking water), and 3M (which sells toxic Teflon cookware), have been responsible for quietly killing legislation that would limit chemical flame retardants. It’s no surprise, really: The global flame retardant market was estimated to be worth $8.63 billion in 2022.
So what’s the solution?
Choosing Less Toxic Furniture
In 2013, California amended its laws on flame resistance, allowing manufacturers to meet flammability requirements without the addition of added flame retardants. Manufacturers can meet these new requirements through tighter weaves on fabric or higher percentages of naturally flame resistant materials, such as wool— no extra chemicals necessary.
For every piece of upholstered furniture you purchase, you can look for a tag that says
THE UPHOLSTERY MATERIALS IN THIS PRODUCT
____ contain added flame retardant chemicals
_X_ contain no added flame retardant chemicals
This tag, for me personally, is the bare minimum for upholstered furniture safety. And luckily, it is becoming easier to find upholstered products without flame retardants. Even a few mass-market manufacturers such as Ashley furniture have banned flame retardants in their upholstery, making it easier for consumers to purchase make less-toxic choices.
SAFER MATTRESSES
While I’ve gone to great lengths over the years to purchase furniture without flame retardants, there is one piece of furniture that I’ve prioritized above the rest: mattresses. My reasoning for this is simple. I spend at least 7 hours a day lying with my face right up against my mattress (more if my family members manage to sleep through the night!) and my kids spend up-wards of twelve hours a day lounging in their beds, between sleep, nap, and play.
I’ve long found Avocado Mattress to be the gold standard for mattress safety. My girls both have Avocado mattresses on their bunk bed, and the company has virtually every safety certification available, ranging from GreenGuard Gold to OEKO-TEX and MADE-SAFE certified.
I have to admit, when I find a product I like, I tend to stick with it. So when a newer mattress company, Earthfoam, reached out to me a few months ago asking if I would like to try their product, I was a little skeptical (especially because with no social media presence to speak of I’m certainly not an influencer!). But I said yes, because I was intrigued by their similarly impeccable safety certifications: Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS), OEKO-TEX, Global Organic Latex Standard (GOLS), and Fair for Life.
I was even more impressed when the mattress arrived on my doorstep only a few days later: Instead of plastic wrap, Earthfoam had taken care to compression-wrap the mattress in fully recyclable paper. And even better, the mattress was super-duper comfortable.
The mattress came with no obligation to sing its praises (you’ll also notice that my link to Earthfoam is not an affiliate link), and I’m never here to convince you to buy something. But it’s tough to upend an existing player in the market, especially for a pretty niche product, like organic mattresses. Despite that, I was blown away by Earthfoam. It’s the perfect example of a company going above and beyond to make their products as safe— to humans and the environment— as they can.
(Something else I appreciate? While everyone else is busy inundating us with Memorial Day sales, Earthfoam let customers know their prices will always be the same, no matter when you buy.)
Happen to be in the market for a pint-size mattress? A growing number of companies offer organic crib mattresses (we have the Emily Organic crib mattress), but there are still only a handful of travel cribs with chemical safety certifications. The most rigorous of these is the Nuna SENA Aire, which has both a Greenguard Gold and OEKO-TEX certification. But this is a market that is quickly changing— only a few years ago, the best available option on the market was the Guava Lotus travel crib (which we personally own). The Guava Lotus boasts a Greenguard Gold certification that tests for low VOC, or volatile organic compound, emissions to improve air quality. But the addition of OEKO-TEX certified travel mattresses is a welcome addition to the market (and pro tip— these products are often used for only a few months, so the secondhand market is ripe with deeply-discounted travel cribs).
SAFER LIVING ROOM FURNITURE
It hasn’t yet been in our budget to expand our sustainability concerns for our living room furniture beyond banishing flame retardants from our sofa and recliners. But if you have the budget and inclination, look for certifications like Greenguard Gold for low-VOC emissions, and OEKO-TEX for safer fabric. You’ll also want to avoid fabrics that boast stain-resistance, as manufacturers generally create stain-resistant products using PFAS, a forever chemical.
Other sites have guides to more environmentally friendly sofas and the like, but I’m not in the mindset to render recommendations for products I’ve never tried. That having been said, brands like Medley and SaavyRest have the certifications I would look for, as do some products at retailers like Pottery Barn and West Elm. And, of course, flame retardant free furniture is becoming more mainstream— so you can get a reasonably safe product without forking over your life savings.
A quick note about the CertiPUR certification: If you are in the market for just about anything foam, whether it’s a mattress or a sofa, you might see a CertiPUR certification. Unlike certifications like OEKO-TEX, CertiPUR is not an independent, third-party-tested certification— it’s a certification system created by foam companies and chemical lobbying groups to compete against imports of cheaper polyurethane foams. CertiPUR regulates things like presence of heavy metals (which don’t generally appear in foam products, anyway) and its testing process for ‘restricted’ phthalates (not all phthalates), formaldehyde, and VOCs is much less stringent than independent certifications, such as Greenguard. It’s not that having a CertiPUR certification is bad (although these products are generally petroleum based)— just that it’s not actually that meaningful for consumer safety.
What happens if it’s not in the budget to upgrade?
Unfortunately, as with many of the other toxic products we’ve talked about, there’s a serious level of financial privilege involved in being able to avoid flame retardants and other nasty chemicals in furniture. In fact, chemical lobbyists have even used this as a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad excuse for keeping toxic flame retardants in children’s car seats, claiming this would be more affordable for low-income families than less-toxic options.
Some states, such as New York, have moved to ban flame retardants (New York’s ban goes into effect in December 2024), so I expect that we will see a widespread increase in affordability of flame-retardant free options in the next few years.
In the meantime, if you are feeling particularly crafty, studies have found that trading out the foam in upholstered furniture (admittedly an easier task for zippered couch cushions than chairs) for non-flame retardant foam can dramatically cut down chemical exposure in a home. But even if that isn’t an option, frequent vacuuming with a HEPA filter, indoor air filters, and frequent hand-washing can make a significant difference in your exposure.
And a quick note on eco-anxiety:
I’ve been asked a few times since beginning this series on toxins in, well, everything— from food and cookware to clothes and home goods— how I handle anxiety around what to buy or consume. And here’s the honest answer. Sometimes, I don’t. Every once in a while, it feels paralyzing to realize that even with the best of intentions, something endocrine-disrupting inevitably makes its way into my life.
But my one wild and precious life is also too valuable to spend every day obsessing over these chemicals. So I do my research once, and make the best, most informed (but still imperfect) decision I can— whether that’s buying a sustainable mattress or eating organic strawberries. Then, I go be as present as I possibly can in my real life. And with series like this, I try to make the process significantly easier for everyone else.
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