Is My Baby's Mattress Safe?

A Reader Asks The Green Guide

We are having our first baby in Feb, and I am trying to figure out what to do about a crib mattress:

1) I have a 2-plus-year-old mattress (loan from a friend)—is it still offgassing toxic chemicals?

2) If I buy new, will any of the solutions I've read about in various places contain the toxic offgassing (e.g. wrapping the mattress in polyethylene sheeting or surgical rubber sheeting to contain the gasses)? If I do this, will this sheeting also contain dust mite droppings and other allergens?

I realize buying an organic mattress is best, but it's a little hard on our budget.

The Green Guide Responds

It's natural to be concerned about your mattress's effect on your and your baby's health—you're on it a third of the day; he or she's on it even more. And as we explained in "That New Bed Smell," it's impossible to make a an absolutely correct mattress choice: polyurethane-based mattresses can off-gas toxic VOCs, including toluene; some people are allergic to latex, and its odor lingers; cotton can lose its loft; wool does not relieve pressure. Also, see our Mattress Product Report for more information about the health aspects of mattress purchases. Except in special cases, such as wool and by prescription, mattresses are required by law to contain chemical fire retardants, which can irritate your lungs or be even more harmful (polybrominated diphenyl ethers in particular), Cost is always an issue, especially for organic mattresses.

So what should you do if you have a foam or polyurethane mattress, or if you can't afford organic? And what's the best choice for your baby?

If you're an adult and you haven't experienced noticeable fumes or symptoms, you shouldn't be overly concerned. If you can't easily smell your mattress, it's likely not off-gassing, at least not much. The first days or weeks you own a foam mattress are when it's most likely to fume, in the greatest volume. You should air out a new foam mattress with a fan by an open window for a few hours, and not sleep on it for at least a few days. If it's still pungent, perhaps it's defective—very occasionally the chemical mixtures in foam mattresses don't take, and odors linger. In that case, call the manufacturer.

What if you have a few symptoms, not enough to throw out your mattress but enough to take notice? Lynn Marie Bower, of the Healthy House Institute and author of The Healthy Household and Creating a Healthy Household, recommends untreated, all-cotton barrier cloth to help seal in odors, though she cautions that off-gassing from foam mattresses and fire-retardants mean that natural mattresses are healthier: wool, for example, is naturally fire-retardant, so no chemical treatment is needed. Also, she noted, mattresses can keep off-gassing for months and even all-natural mattresses can have an odor, though not toxic. But as a partial remedy, she recommends the barrier cloths made by Janice Corporation (www.janices.com), which are also supposed to protect against dust mites—launder them regularly. When we called Janice Corp. to ask about the efficacy of its products, Dr. Myron Swack, the vice-president (and husband of Janice), cautioned that though their cloth has 300 threads per square inch, "it's still cloth" and "there's no shortcut"—fumes penetrate. Still, he thought it could help many sufferers.

We asked Swack about polyethylene and surgical rubber mattress covers. The problem with them, he said, is the mattress then can't breath, and bacteria and mold can grow. Two studies by Rosalind C. Anderson and Julius H. Anderson in Archives of Environmental Health have found that some polyurethane foam mattresses and PVC mattress covers, as well as standard spring mattresses, can release benzenes, styrene, and limonene (though not fire retardants or toluene); some crib mattress covers can release toluene, xylenes, benzenes, and phenol. Only organic cotton crib mattresses had no detectable toxic emissions.

Some holistic and alternative health groups claim that polyethylene mattress covers are good for babies, and in fact prevent SIDS. Howver, Dr. Betty McEntire, executive director of the American SIDS Institute, says that the only recommendation she can make is that the mattress be firm, with a tight-fitting sheet, and fits the crib. Also the baby should be placed in the bed on his back with nothing in the bed but the baby and the clothes he's wearing. "We have not taken a stand on other issues regarding mattresses such as reusing them, since the published medical literature has not shown a significant difference," she says. None of the data she's seen is good, well-controlled data, whether on polyethylene wrapping, mattress reusing, mattress material, or any other "quick fix for SIDS."

What to make of all this? Polyethylene covers are no doubt safer than those of PVC, and give dust mite protection, perhaps even better than does cloth (again, clean them regularly). You should carefully inspect your hand-me-down crib mattress to make sure it's clean and still firm; since it's old, it may have gotten much of its out-gassing out of its system. If it's dirty or too soft, it's advisable to buy a new one, as natural as fits your budget.

If buying a new mattress and willing to pay more, below are some sources for organic cotton and wool baby mattresses, cribs, and bedding Green Guide recommends:

Obasan 888-413-4442

Natural Home Products 707-824-0914

Tomorrowsworld 800-229-7571