Consumer Watch: Mattress Safety

05:00 PM EDT on Monday, August 22, 2005

You and your family spend hours every night unconscious, asleep on something the Consumer Product Safety Commission says may not be safe.

From 1980 to 1998, mattress and bedding fires killed 12,712 Americans, 10 times more than those killed by tornadoes and hurricanes combined. During that period, mattress and bedding fires injured almost 56,000 people.

In order to reduce your risk of dying or being seriously injured due to a mattress fire, a new law is being enacted nationwide by the CPSC this year. It is already in effect in California.

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It requires all mattresses to resist ignition from open flames. But in order to make your mattress more resistant to fire, Mark Strobel, a bedding manufacturer in Jeffersonville Indiana, says toxic chemicals are required; one, boric acid, is used in rat poison.

Strobel sites test after test that point to dangers associated with sleeping on chemically treated materials and says he feels consumers should have a choice.

"We are putting 300 million at risk to sleeping in toxic chemicals to save 300 from fire," he says.

Strobel says mattresses that adhere to the commission standards will cost you about $100 more. Many of the major manufacturers have already made the switch.

Strobel is leading a campaign to reverse the CPSC's requirements.

Web story produced by Jay Ditzer.