Anyone know about phosphor organic flame retardants?

[Toposlonoshlep]

Hi!

All the mattresses we have in our house are from Ikea, and most are foam...polyurethane foam of course. Yuck, but what can ya do? I cannot afford to do a natural or organic mattress makeover. I have my bed wrapped and the baby's co-sleeper mattress wrapped, but my son's is still unwrapped. I know Ikea doesn't use the brominated crap, but what are phosphor organic flame retardants? Do they offgass? Are they dangerous? Carcinogenic/mutagenic?

Need a scientist....chemist?

Thank you!

[kotapop]

I am not a chemist either, but would be interested to see someone knowledgeable in that area give a better answer. When I emailed IKEA regarding their sofa cushion foam earlier this year, they responded that "Our living room seating is treated with a chemical flame retardant with a phosphate  base or  chlorinated phosphorous-compound." From what I have gleaned, it seems the chemical companies are just tweaking their formulations from, for example, chlorinated Tris to a molecularly similar compound that is not yet tested as comprehensively but likely to have comparable health effects due to its similar composition. Hence I decided it was not worth the risk until I found a company with a more specific answer as to what chemicals they are using. The mysterious proprietary formulation they use may or may not be safe, but if they won't tell us what it is, then who knows?

Again, I apologize if I am misusing any scientific terms here, and interested to hear any more informed opinions on the topic. For further reading, I'd suggest looking through some of Arlene Blum's research.

Good luck!

[kotapop]

By the way, how is it sleeping on the wrapped mattress? Was thinking of wrapping our toxic TempurPedic but my husbands thinks it will be uncomfortable and loud from the plastic crinkling. Do you put any sort of mattress topper over it?