In 2007, the unconstitutional Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) began requiring all mattresses sold in the United States to be flame retardant. On the surface this may sound like a good thing. But the only way to make mattresses flame retardant is for mattress companies to infuse their mattresses with toxic flame-retardant chemicals. These are chemicals which the Consumer Product Safety Commission admits are toxic. The CPSC claims the chemicals stay bound to the materials in the mattresses and the quantities are not high enough to cause any harm to humans. However, within their own regulations, there is a loophole for people to obtain chemical free mattresses. If a doctor prescribes to his patient a chemical free mattress, then a consumer may obtain, and a manufacturer may produce, a mattress that does not meet the strict flame standards. That alone is tantamount to admission that the first assertions are not true. Evidence since 2007 has unequivocally proven their assessment of the safety of the chemicals in mattresses was wrong. Exposure to the chemicals is not safe for consumers.
Within these regulations, the Consumer Product Safety Commission claims that by making mattresses flame retardant it will save lives by giving people more time to get out of their house during a fire since the mattress is no longer a source of fuel for the fire to spread. When a little common sense is applied here, people can see something else is going on. If a fire starts in a basement, in a kitchen, or at an electrical source or heat source, by the time the fire spreads to the bedroom, most people will be dead from the smoke. Additionally, the Consumer Product Safety Commission did not require sheets, blankets, nor pillows to be flame retardant so what good is a flame proof mattress if the sheets and bedding are still flammable?!The reality is that the Consumer Product Safety Commission didn’t ask consumers in any scientific survey if consumers would prefer a flame-proof mattress if it meant sleeping on a product that was treated with chemicals that are toxic. Supposedly the Consumer Product Safety Commission believes it knows better than consumers themselves what they need and want. Moreover, the Consumer Product Safety Commission did not require disclosure of the chemicals being used in mattresses by manufacturers. Most consumers don’t even know such regulations exist, much less what they entail.
