GOOD NIGHT, DON'T LET THE CHEMICALS BITE
By: Emily Clifford,
For contact info for Emily or her father Bruce Clifford call 800-457-6442
 

Intro by Bruce Clifford, Emily's report below:
 

Emily Clifford has won the right to represent her school at a Regional Science Fair.  Emily chose to do her science project on the use of toxic chemicals as a flame retardant in mattress.

When asked how she arrived at her topic, Emily remarked, “I started out looking at common household fire hazards, but, when I was researching mattresses and the use of toxic chemicals to fire proof them, I knew I had found my subject”.  After she identified her topic, the next stage was to thoroughly research the issue.  She contacted mattress companies, chemical companies and regulatory agencies; however, her greatest source of information came from the People for Clean Beds website. 

Once the research was complete, she decided that her project would be a study on the public perception of this issue.  After surveying over 100 people, she was able to determine the some interesting information.  The highlights are as follows:

1)                  Approximately 2/3 of the public did not know that new mattresses had to be flame proofed

2)                  Over 85% of the sample population were unaware that toxic chemicals, such as boric acid and antimony (roach killer) were being used for flame-retardants in mattresses.

3)                  After learning about the use of toxic chemicals in mattresses, over 90% of the people surveyed would be willing to pay more for a safer non-toxic solution.

4)                  The most startling result, from a statistical view point, was that over 95% of the group would like their government to ban the practice of using toxic chemicals in mattresses.

5)                  Only 50% of the people with children under 5 years-old knew that it is common for a child to suck on a mattress, which is a more direct way to ingest higher levels of toxic chemicals.

Emily asked many questions while doing her research and requested that groups backup their statements with independent testing reports.  She even sent them a medical statement from a chemical company for their comments.  The statistical analysis of the public awareness has not been done before and has yielded results very favourable to the cause, which is to make mattresses safer for the public.  This project was an excellent scientific study done by a student well beyond hers years, as she is only in Grade 8.

We are very pleased that Emily has joined the fight.  She is currently communicating provincial and federal government departments to express her concerns and the views of her survey subjects.  If successful at the Regional Contest, her project would then represent her province at the Nationals.  We wish her best of luck!

Emily Clifford's Report:

Project Results

Problem After a law was passed in 2006, all mattresses must be flame proofed. In order to meet these requirements, mattress companies are applying toxic chemicals such as boric acid and antimony. These chemicals are known to cause cancer and have many other negative health effects.

Purpose The purpose of this study is to see how informed the public is regarding mattress flame retardants. Also, after presenting them with the information, how many of them would pay more for safer mattresses?

Hypothesis If the public were more aware of the toxic chemicals being used in the flame proofing of mattresses, then they would start to pay more for a safer and non-toxic solution.

Variables Independent Variable When Doing The Survey: • Informing the public about the chemicals

Dependant Variable When Doing The Survey: • How much will be spent on a safe mattress

Controlled Variables When Doing the Survey: • The subjects in the survey had to be adults. • In the second part of the survey, only parents with children under the age of 5 participated

Survey Data Analysis The majority of people are sleeping on mattresses that are between 1 and 5 years old. This means that some of these mattresses may contain boric acid and antimony. Any people who sleep on mattresses that were purchased during the last year are most likely being exposed to these chemicals every night.

After being introduced to the information concerning the chemicals in newer mattresses, most people would pay 25% more for an organic mattress. However, 29% of the people would pay up to 50% more and 10% would even pay 100% more.

However, when looking at the average prices of mattresses, organic mattresses are about 70% more than regular mattresses. When parents of young children were surveyed, they were exposed to information regarding children sucking on mattresses and how this could prove to be extremely toxic. After reading this part of the survey, almost 50% of these parents then stated that they would be willing to pay even more for an organic mattress. For the subjects who stated that they would change their answers, the following table explains the differences between their answers:

First Answer Second Answer Subject 1 50% More 100% More Subject 2 50% More 100% More Subject 3 50% More 75% More Subject 4 25% More 50% More Subject 5 25% More 50% More

Every night, many people are sleeping on potentially dangerous mattresses without even knowing that their mattresses were flame proofed. Only about 36% of the people in this study were aware that their mattresses now need to pass open flame tests in order to be sold.

Once people were aware that mattresses needed to be flame proofed, only 14% of them knew that chemicals such as boric acid and antimony are applied to them. All of these people later went on to say that they would pay more for safer mattresses.

After people became aware of the presence of toxic chemicals in mattresses, only 17% of them would purchase a new mattress, which was treated with boric acid and antimony. This means that people are concerned about the chemicals and would like safer mattresses.

Ninety-five percent of the people would like to see the government take action and ban the practice of flame proofing with these chemicals. This should also include the fact that very few companies have chemical policies with regard to brominated flame-retardants. The government and mattress companies definitely need to look into this issue and find safer ways to flame proof mattresses.

After being exposed to information regarding their new mattresses being flame proofed with toxic chemicals, how many subjects regret their decision to purchase a new mattress?

For the people who have a mattress that was purchased during the last year, 70.4% would not buy a new mattress now.

The following questions were only asked to parents of children under the age of 5:

Question Yes No

Are you aware that new mattresses sold today have to be flame proofed? 36.3% 63.7%

Are you aware that boric acid and antimony are being applied to most new mattresses in order to flameproof them? 14.2% 85.8%

Would buy a new mattress treated with boric acid and/or antimony after knowing this information? 17.3% 82.7%

Would you be willing to pay more for a mattress that is made of organic cotton (non-toxic) and still is flame retardant? 91.1% 8.9%

Would you like your government to ban the practice of flame proofing mattress with toxic chemicals? 95.5% 4.5%

Are you aware that children are known to suck on the surface of mattresses? 53.3% 46.7%

After knowing this information would you change your response to how much more would you be willing to pay for a safe mattress? 42.9% 57.1%

Conclusion To summarize this study, it is clear that people would be willing to pay more for safer and non-toxic mattresses if they were aware of the chemicals, which are applied to mattresses and their harmful effects on human beings.

Applications Many things learned from this project can help companies and consumers in today’s market. First of all, the government needs to take action with this ongoing issue. If they were concerned enough to make a law to protect their citizens from fire hazards, they should care enough about the health of the population as well. Secondly, the public is not very interested in purchasing new mattresses now that they know about the potential harm that boric acid and antimony possess. This should encourage companies to investigate new solutions to use for flame proofing mattresses. This should also encourage organic mattress companies to adjust their prices because people are going to be more interested in organic mattresses after learning about the chemicals, which exist in their current toxic mattresses. As the demand for these safe products increases, organic companies should consider lowering their prices. This study has proven to be useful as many people and companies can benefit from the information gathered.

Future Research In the future, many investigations could be made concerning the use of new flameretardants. There are many other fabrics, materials, etc. that could possibly be used for future flameproofing. I plan to continue my research into the toxicity of boric acid and antimony when used in mattresses. I also hope to raise public awareness about the dangers of these chemicals in beds and promote the idea of organic mattresses being a safer alternative.

Sources of Error While Doing The Survey During the survey, it was clear that a few people didn’t understand some questions or the topic in general, so they just filled out the survey by using answers that didn’t completely make sense. Although this data cannot be excluded from the survey, the majority of the answers gave a clear indication of understanding. Any questions that weren’t answered or that had written answers were excluded from the rest of the data. Another thing that I noticed was that some people were doing the survey with their kids and some even had their children complete the survey.

Background Research Results

What Is A Brominated Flame-Retardant? Brominated Flame-Retardants (BFRs) are any chemicals added to things in order to flame proof them.

What Is Boric Acid? Boric acid is used primarily for flameproofing and as a roach killer. It is usually in the form of a powder or crystals, which will be ground into a powder before being applied to mattresses. The powder or crystals are produced from borate mineral and are then mixed with sulfuric acid to produce boric acid. The largest source of borate minerals is located in Boron, California.

What Is Antimony? Antimony is used in flameproofing but can also be found in paints, rubber and ceramics. It is a blue-white or tin-white metal with a hardness of 3 ½ (Mohs Hardness Scale).

Why Use These Chemicals? After a law in 2006 was passed that implied that all mattresses must be flame proofed, boric acid was the quickest and cheapest solution. All mattresses must now pass an open flame test for 70 seconds in order to be sold.

How Much Are We Absorbing and How Much Is Safe?

Boric Acid The government says that we will absorb 0.081 mg of boric acid from mattresses every day. For children, 2 g of boric acid and for an adult, 5 g can prove to be fatal.

Antimony The government says that a human being will absorb approximately 0.8 mg of antimony from mattresses per day. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) says that only 0.03 mg is safe to absorb. Therefore, antimony in mattresses exceeds toxic levels by 27 times.

Why Is It Bad For You?

Boric Acid Inhalation could result in nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, drowsiness, rash, headache, decrease in body temperature and/or low blood pressure. More serious exposure could result in a coma or even death, but this would be extremely unlikely for the amounts that are inhaled through mattresses. Skin Contact could cause some traces of skin irritation. Eye Contact could cause irritation, redness and pain.

Antimony Antimony has been linked to respiratory and cardiovascular problems. Also, it could cause eye irritation. Antimony has also been linked to cancer, developmental defects and reproductive problems.

How Do They Apply It? Boric Acid is applied in a powder form and is mixed with cotton fibers in a machine. Therefore, boric acid is loose powder around the surface of mattresses. As the mattress gets older and the oils begin to dry out, more powder is brought to the surface and this can increase our daily exposure.

By The Numbers

Amount of Boric Acid in Mattresses Size Grams Pounds Ounces Twin 386 0.9 14 Full 553 1.2 20 Queen 659 1.5 23 King 824 1.8 29 Crib 202 0.5 7

Amount of Antimony in Mattresses Size Grams Pounds Ounces Twin 93 0.22 3 Full 133 0.29 5 Queen 158 0.36 6 King 198 0.43 7 Crib 67 0.2 2

Why Choose An Organic Mattress? Organic mattresses are completely non-toxic because they use 100% natural cotton in order to flameproof them. They do cost more, but you would be getting a cleaner and healthier sleep. Is it worth the extra investment?

Cost Differences Note: All of the prices below are for the mattress only. The price of the box spring is not included. Regular Mattresses Example Price of a Twin Price of a Queen Price of a King 1 $800 $900 $1200 2 $550 $750 $900 3 $670 $800 $1000 Average $673.3 $816.67 $1033.3

Organic Mattresses Example Price of a Twin Price of a Queen Price of a King 1 $1400 $1800 $2200 2 $700 $1050 $1250 3 $1300 $1500 $1700 Average $1133.3 $1450 $1716.67

Table of Averages Price of a Twin Price of a Queen Price of a King Regular $673.3 $816.67 $1033.3 Organic $1133.3 $1450 $1716.67 Difference in Prices Organic: 68.3% More Organic: 77.6% More Organic: 66.1% More Overall Difference 70.7% More

Chemical Policies

Mattress Company Chemical Policy Ikea does not use brominated flame-retardants in their mattresses. Serta does not have a public chemical policy to ensure that their mattresses are free of any chemicals that could harm human health. In North America, Sealy does not have any chemical policies to ensure the safety of their customers. However, in England Sealy is trying to move away from these flame-retardants. Simmons does not appear to have any policy that avoids the use of these chemicals. Sears does not have any policy that bans the use of any chemicals that poise a risk to human health.

This is where you will find boric acid in mattresses. The difference between treated cotton (left) and organic cotton (right).

Appendix - The Survey Form

Mattress Flame Retardants Thank you for volunteering to answer some questions for my Science Fair Project. Please circle the letter of THE BEST ANSWER (1) for each question. Thank you.

1. How old is your current mattress? a) <1 year b) Between 1-5 years c) Between 5-10 years d) >10 years

2. Are you aware that new mattresses sold today have to be flame proofed? a) Yes b) No

3. Are you aware that boric acid is used as a roach killer? a) Yes b) No

4. Are you aware that boric acid and antimony are linked to skin and eye irritation, stomach pains, reproductive problems, heart problems, respiratory problems, and have ultimately been linked to cancer? a) Yes b) No

5. Are you aware that boric acid and antimony are being applied to most new Mattresses in order to flameproof them? a) Yes b) No

6. Do you know that when sleeping on a new flame proofed mattress you are absorbing 0.802 mg of antimony and 0.081 mg of boric acid everyday? a) Yes b) No

7. Would buy a new mattress treated with boric acid and/or antimony after knowing this information? a) Yes b) No

8. Would you be willing to pay more for a mattress that is made of organic cotton (nontoxic) and still is flame retardant? a) Yes b) No

9. Up to how much more would you be willing to pay? a) 25% more b) 50% more c) 75% more d) 100% more

10.Would you like your government to ban the practice of flame proofing mattress with toxic chemicals? a) Yes b) No

11. Do you have any children under the age of 5? a) Yes b) No

If you answered “Yes” to the above question (# 11) please respond to the following questions, again, circling the letter of THE BEST ANSWER (1):

12. Are you aware that children are known to suck on the surface of mattresses? a) Yes b) No

13. Are you aware that a child could possibly be sucking on an area of up to 50cm² each hour and, depending on the weight of your child, this exposure could exceed toxic levels up to 68 times? a) Yes b) No

14. After knowing this information would you change your response to Question 9 (Up to how much more would you be willing to pay for a safe mattress)? a) Yes b) No

15. If so, how much more? a) 25% more b) 50% more c) 75% more d) 100% more

Thank you very much for your time. Your answers will definitely help me in my Science Fair Project.