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I was looking at chairs and it says: Our long lasting seat and back fabric is made of Du Pont Teflon protected Marquesa Lana Olefin, designed to resist pilling, fading, punctures or moisture while meeting the flame retardant stan- dards of California Technical Bulletin #117 (Section E). I google the flame retardant standards and it only says how to test. Nobody ever tells you what they put in the fabric or foam to make it flame retardant. Is there anyway to find out? I will email the company, but they never tell you and they never know. I can't find an organic chair (that is what you said to look for in a mattress). Also how do we know which foams have fire retardants in them when we buy them NOT in mattresses? I assume they are not doing this to latex layers. I did read they do treat cores somewhere. This is just too confusing. I don't want chemicals. |
| fire retardants don't really have anything to do with the foams used so much as just the coverings, although that is not the 1633 CFR standards for mattresses. I can only assume that they use similar chemicals with a lot of furniture for flame retardancy. I don't know if they make sofas that are organic but there are some that use wool as a flame retardant. you can search for Hemp sofas with wool as a cushion liner (over dunlop latex) this is about the cleanest you can get. but usually for being chemical free and also not using leather usually hemp is the fabric of choice, linen would also be great but you don't see a lot of it because of the cost. |
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I have read they do put fire retardants in SOME foams. I can't tell which ones since I do so much googling. I find this is a subject consumers do not seem to care much about, I do. I don't want formaldehyde or boric acid or who knows what in the chair, couch, mattresses, etc. The manufacturers don't care to enlighten the consumers on what exactly they do either. Really a pet peeve of mine.  Ignorance is not bliss. |
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standard polyurethane foams do usually contain some flame retardants yes, however its not enough to make them pass testing. Formaldehyde really is the chemical of choice for most because it is cheap. Boric acid although it sounds really nasty is only mildly toxic, I agree I would prefer not to even have this in my mattress, but its not nearly as dangerous as formaldehyde. It actually occurs naturally in almost all fruits, taken from wiki: "Based on mammalian median lethal dose (LD50) rating of 2,660 mg/kg body mass, boric acid is poisonous if taken internally or inhaled in large quantities. However, it is generally considered to be not much more toxic than table salt" Boric acid is only typically used in cotton batting, which is really no longer being used in mass production of upholstered goods. What you really don't want is formaldehyde or antimony fire barriers as these are highly toxic chemicals that can actually cross the blood/brain barrier. Most polyurethane foams and virtually all polyester coverings or polyester battings used in upholstery have some formaldehyde content. |
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Have to agree with budgy on Boric acid as a "flame retardant". Its about as toxic as table salt to humans. I would not object to it being in my mattress, because its much safer than many other flame retardant products on the market. The plus side to boric acid is a higher LD 50 toxicity to insects (bedbugs).
Did some digging on Marquesa Lana Olefin. It fall into a class known as "Olefin fibers" Blended polyethylene and polypropylene fibers. http://www.fibersource.com/f-tutor/olefin.htm
It is difficult to know for sure what additives they are using. I'm not a guru on FTC regulations, or if they require the mfg to disclose "flame retardant" additives used in melt spinning the fibers.
Several related patents on olefin fibers suggest that "flame retardant" chemicals are used to treat these fibers.
Halogenated organic compound is a "broad term" which may include the nasty PDBE's. Another reference suggests that they are using "flame retardants" (This would especially be the case due to federal regulations for flamibility of mattresses.)
This message was modified Mar 20, 2010 by zzzombie
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