Safe Mattress Guide

UPDATED: November 2019

Written by Maia & John

Finding a non-toxic mattress is super important but also super confusing to work through. If your head hurts just looking at the length of this page, please feel free to reach out to our Home Health Director, John, or his administrative assistant, Tracy, for individualized help. You can also call 717-869-6968 to speak with John.

And, here’s a video summarizing what’s in this new guide:

NOTE: Since we shot this video, several more companies have achieved top-level certifications. See below, under The Best Stuff.

Okay, so those are some shortcuts. For the rest of you, read on for what to look for in a non-toxic mattress, the confusing world of certifications, and of course, our lists of Best, Good, Okay, Bad, and Sneaky mattresses!

My Own Non-Toxic Mattress Choices

When I was pregnant for the first time, we decided to upgrade to a king-sized bed in anticipation of co-sleeping with our newborn.

Of course, I wouldn’t be me if I didn’t agonize and research before making any purchase…and there was plenty to agonize over when it came to finding a non-toxic mattress!

At the time of writing this updated post, I have a 4-year-old and a 8-year-old, both of whom still spend a lot of time in our bed, and I’m so glad I feel comfortable with (and comfortable on!) the non-toxic mattresses we chose: a Savvy Rest for us in 2009, followed by White Lotus futons for the boys, and now we’ve just upgraded to a Soaring Heart Zoned for our bedroom.

Why did I swap out my Savvy Rest for a Soaring Heart? Well, thanks to my dad’s even more intensive research, the updated version of this Guide breaks mattresses into even more categories, and we really separate the Best Stuff from even the Very Good Stuff when it comes to finding a non-toxic mattress. (For the master bedroom of our nontoxic retreat space, we also chose a Soaring Heart Mattress.)

Our Top Pick for Non-Toxic Mattress
As you’ll see below, there are only three non-toxic mattress brands that qualify as the Best Stuff, thanks to their super legit certifications.

We are both (Maia and John) now sleeping on Soaring Heart mattresses, which happen to also be the most comfortable, luxurious mattresses we’ve found.

Shop Soaring Heart

 Sick Beds: Why a Non-Toxic Mattress Matters

I often tell my private consulting clients that their mattress is the very first thing they should upgrade when detoxing their homes. This is particularly true when it comes to a crib mattress.

The reason I feel so strongly about sleeping on a non-toxic mattress? Well, for one thing, babies and kids spend a lot of time sleeping, and even busy, night-owl grownups spend at least 25% of their lives in bed. Moreover, there is evidence that your immune system works hardest at night, so it seems reasonable to make your sleep environment as clean as possible. Unfortunately, mattresses are loaded with noxious chemicals, including:

• Various petrochemicals. Indeed, MOST of what makes up a conventional mattress are petroleum-based.
• Plastics or vinyls.
• Flame retardant chemicals (although there is good news on this front–more on that in a minute).
• Synthetic latex, which usually made from styrene, a human carcinogen.

This chemical cocktail releases VOCs (volatile organic compounds), which are linked to a host of health problems, from respiratory irritation to cancer.

A Myth About Off-Gassing

Many of my clients think that their mattresses are okay if they are old because they have “already off-gassed.” Unfortunately, this is not true in the case of foam mattresses. In fact, as the foam degrades, more PBDEs (hormone-disrupting flame retardants) may be released.

Crib mattresses are often covered in vinyl for waterproofing, which often contains phthalates. In 2009, Congress passed a law that forbids the use of three types of phthalates in products for young children, including mattresses. Of course, other plasticizers are likely used in place of phthalates, and they may be just as bad.

Fire “Safety”: The Most Dangerous Part of Your Mattress

Mattresses are required by the Consumer Product Safety Commission to meet flammability laws, which previously meant that they were almost always treated with bromated or chlorinated flame retardant chemicals, typically one of the first three on this list:

• Polybrominated diphenyl ethers. PBDEs are associated with hormone disruption, hyperactivity, and neurodevelopmental delays, including lowered IQ . The European Union has banned the use of PBDEs in electronic devices. Studies show that children in the United States have higher levels of PBDEs than adults do. Oh, and here’s the kicker: they don’t even work very well at stopping fires.
• Firemaster 550. This nasty chemical cocktail is made with bis(2-ethylhexyl) tetrabromophthalate (TBPH). Yes, you saw that word in there: phthalate. TBPH is nearly idential to DEHP, the phthalate banned in children’s products (including mattresses!!) due to evidence of carcinogenicity and developmental toxicity.
• Chlorinated tris. This is the notorious chemical that was removed from children’s pajamas in the 1970s because it was shown to cause cancer.
• Halogen-free flame retardants. This newer class of chemicals (such as ammonium polyphosphate, aluminium diethyl phosphinate, and melamine polyphosphate) is believed to be much less likely to bioaccumulate than bromated flame retardants. I still prefer my mattresses to be free of even these.

Are Coils Bad Stuff?

There has been a lot of chatter on the net in recent years regarding metal coils in beds. We paid close attention to this and did some research and arrived at the conclusion that steel springs present no known danger.

The bottom line is that there is no reason for concern. It’s not that we think EMFs are benign, it’s that we can find no credible evidence showing that metal coils can act like an antenna and concentrate EMFs into our sleeping bodies.

Great Ingredients: What to Look for in a Non-Toxic Mattress

Now that you know what can make a mattress toxic, let me tell you about the materials and certifications that make up a non-toxic mattress. They include:

• Organic wool (untreated) is naturally flame and mildew/dust mite resistant.
• 100% natural latex (made from rubber trees) is safer than latex blends, which may contain petroleum-based polyurethane.
• Organic cotton (grown in untreated soil, without pesticides) can be used for batting or mattress wrapping. There is a robust debate about whether or not the herbicides and pesticides used on cotton crops will wash/bleach out as the cotton is processed. Most studies show that it does, but some folks believe that a residue remains. We believe that the risk of sleeping on a mattress or sheets made from conventionally grown cotton are tiny. Still, for the good of the planet, we should all choose organically grown cotton whenever possible. (Sadly, certified organic cotton is costly…about two times the cost of conventional.)
• Trusted certifications, from third-party certifying bodies, mean that some ingredients in the mattress have been vetted by organizations committed to improving air quality. This also means a safer sleeping surface for you. However, all certifications are not created equally! (See below.)

Non-Toxic Mattress Certifications

Sorting through mattress certifications is maddening. Here’s just some of why that is:

1. First of all, not all certifications are created equal–some offer great assurance that your new mattress will be non-toxic, while others are essentially meaningless.
2. What’s more, just because a company shows a certification doesn’t mean all of the material in that mattress are certified, or even that all of THAT material is certified. One of our readers wrote to us about a mattress that contained Oeko-Tex 100 certified wool, but the company wouldn’t confirm that they solely purchases the wool from this source. Thus, in this case it would be impossible to know if the mattress you’re purchasing contains the certified wool or not (to say nothing of the other materials in this mattress).
3. Sometimes, a mattress will claim to have a certification that they don’t really have. One of the of the most common deceptive practices is when a manufacturer claims to have GOLS certification for their latex mattress, and they even display the GOLS logo on their website. They might even show an actual copy of it on their website, complete with date and signatures. If, however, the certificate is not written to the same name as the manufacturer, it is not particularly meaningful. They are commonly written to a latex supplier out of Sri Lanka or India or South America. A certification written to an entity or person in Sri Lanka shows only that the latex was certified up to that point on its journey to becoming someone’s bed. Between Sri Lanka and your bedroom all sorts of things can (and do) happen to the latex to cause it to be more toxic than the certification implies. (The non-toxic mattress brands that have the best certifications written directly to the company are listed below under The Best Stuff.)

Best Non-Toxic Mattress Certifications

The two certifications to look for in your mattress are GOLS (for latex) and GOTS (for textiles). But again, unless these certifications are written directly to the mattress manufacturer, they are not particularly meaningful.

To obtain a GOTS certification, at least 95% of the mattress must be made of certified organic materials, and certain chemistries are prohibited entirely, even for that other 5%.  These include polyurethane foam and the fire retardants listed above.

A GOLS certification means that the mattress is made of at least 95% organic latex, and again, the other 5% of the materials are also restricted in important ways.

Good Non-Toxic Mattress Certifications

While Oeko-Tex Standard 100 doesn’t require any organic materials to be used in a mattress, it does set limits for VOC emissions (such as formaldehyde). It also prohibits the use of dangerous flame retardants and dyes.

Okay Mattress Certifications

Greenguard-certified mattresses have been tested (and are within limits) of certain VOCS, such as formaldehyde. Greenguard Gold has stricter standards than plain old Greenguard.

Organic Content Standard 100 just means that some of the ingredients are organic, but doesn’t ban flame retardants or other harmful chemicals.

Sneaky Mattress Certifications

NAOMI (National Association of Organic Mattress Industry) and CertiPUR are both essentially meaningless. NAOMI was created by Pure Rest Organics (a mattress company!), and CertiPUR was developed “by members of the global foam industry,” although it does ban the use of some chemicals, such as PBDE flame retardants).

The Bottom Line on Non-Toxic Mattress Certifications

Most certifications are of SOME value, but they can be used sneakily by mattress manufacturers. Manufacturers may claim to have a certification that they don’t actually have. So you really need to ask to see the actual signed certification, keeping in mind that if it’s out of date, it’s worthless. The non-toxic mattress brands that have the best certifications written directly to the company are listed below under The Best Stuff.

The Best Stuff

The Good Stuff

The mattresses that we are calling “The Good Stuff” make all the claims of safety and non-toxic materials and processes, but don’t have all of the top-level certifications. Of course, this doesn’t mean they actually have questionable materials in them, but simply that we can’t be completely assured of their non-toxicity in the same way that we can for the stuff we have deemed The Best Stuff. 

Bella Sera

This tiny company has some good certifications, namely GOLS, but unfortunately it’s not written directly to the company (but rather the foam manufacturer; you can see why this may be problematic by reading the Certifications section above). They use wool as a flame retardant, which makes them Good Stuff rather than Okay Stuff.

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CozyPure

CozyPure’s mattresses skip all the flame retardants in favor of wool, which is significant. Unfortunately, though, their GOLS certification isn’t written directly to them, so I can’t call this brand the Best Stuff.

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Lotus Travel Crib from Guava Family

The only reason I’m calling the Lotus Good Stuff instead of just Okay is because it’s the best of the travel/portable crib options, with no chemical flame retardants and a GreenGuard certification. It is, however, made of polyurethane foam and polyester, and would definitely not be my first choice for a regular crib mattress.

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Savvy Rest

Savvy Rest is the non-toxic mattress we bought when I was pregnant, and we slept on it for six comfortable years. The latex used by Savvy Rest is 100% natural, and other materials used include certified organic wool (which serves as flame retardant) and cotton. Note that the Dunlop latex is organic, while the Talalay is not.

Savvy Rest mattresses have various natural certifications, including Oeko-Tex. (It’s important to note that these certifications are for specific materials within the mattress, rather than the mattress itself; you can read more about this above.)

The process of picking the right mattress can feel complicated when you’re choosing your Savvy Rest mattress, despite great customer service. Like most other mattress brands, Savvy uses some proprietary materials and processes in the manufacturing of their mattresses, and we know that chemicals are needed to convert latex into foam. Savvy Rest’s GOTS certification is written in their name, and their GOLs certifications are written to their latex supplier (see above for more on certifications).

How to Get a Savvy Rest Mattress

Visit Savvy Rest’s website to see their wide array of mattresses and learn more about all the materials they use. Our king-sized mattress cost around $3,500, but prices depend on which model you choose in addition to the size you want.

Shop Savvy Rest Mattresses

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White Lotus

White Lotus sent along a big box of samples of all of their sumptuous natural materials when I first reviewed them. (My kids had a blast making beds for their stuffed animals out of the goodies.) Not all White Lotus mattresses qualify as Good Stuff, though, so make a note of the issues below.

White Lotus uses some really cool ingredients in their products:

• Kapok to stuff their mattresses. The “harvesting of the kapok pods provides jobs to indigenous people and helps maintain this vanishing ecosystem,” according to the White Lotus website.
• Wholesale green cotton, which is totally unprocessed once harvested from the bolls–no bleaches, dyes, or fungicides.
• Wool, which is 100% virgin lamb’s wool.
• Organic cotton.
• Organic buckwheat hulls (for pillows).
• 100% natural latex (from the rubber tree).

White Lotus has a GOTS certification for their mattress materials.

When I decided to get Felix a new twin-sized non-toxic mattress, I went with this White Lotus futon.

Bad Stuff About White Lotus

Avoid the Evergreen Foam used by White Lotus, which is a blend of “natural, oil-based foam” and conventional polyol, an alcohol used in the production of polyurethane. While off-gassing is heavily reduced and the environmental impact better than conventional foam, I don’t consider this truly natural, toxin-free foam.

We have gotten to know the folks at White Lotus quite well, and we really trust the owner. Because White Lotus does not have GOLS certification written in its name, we classify it as Good Stuff rather than Best Stuff.

How to Get a White Lotus Mattress

We now carry White Lotus mattresses and futons in our online store! If you don’t see the model or size that you want, contact us and we will get it for you. Prices range from $1,100 to $2,490. Crib mattresses run from $470 to $825. Please note that we do not carry any White Lotus products with any of the questionable ingredients listed above–if you see it in our store, you know it’s free of borate, toxic foam, and other synthetics.

Shop White Lotus Mattresses

(And here’s a video I made on the difference between a mattress and a futon.)

The Okay Stuff

The brands we call “Okay Stuff” may have CertiPUR or other dubious certifications, and/or Talalay latex, but due to new laws, they probably do not have flame retardant chemicals, so should be reasonably non-toxic.

Brooklyn Bedding

This company claims to have OekoTex certification but failed to present proof to us of this. They do have CertiPUR certification (meaning at least the very worst flame retardants won’t be present in these mattresses).

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Coco-Mat

This brand uses all the right buzzwords to describe their mattresses (“non-toxic,” “sustainable,” etc.), but they are lacking somewhat in the certification department (although with digging we discovered they do carry the Oeko-Tex 100 certification). The big question mark for us is the “natural rubber” they use, which doesn’t have any certification, sadly. Still, that Oeko-Tex 100 certification means something, and they don’t use PBDE flame retardants.

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Eco Terra

Eco Terra has OEKO-TEX certifications for their Talalay latex and wool.  As of this writing their GOTS certificate is long out of date. The good news is they don’t use scary flame retardants, just hydrated silica, about which we have no significant concerns.

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Essentia

We field a ton of questions about Essentia from people who love memory foam and want a safer option. Standard memory foam (made of petroleum derivatives) is decidedly toxic, and I’ve long suspected Essentia of being Sneaky stuff. After researching Essentia thoroughly for a recent client, I came away (still reluctantly!) recommending them as Okay Stuff, although I do still have a few reservations. They use a proprietary flame retardant in their foam, which involves Kevlar–a material that is not remotely natural, but which appears to be non-toxic, based on current research available. Kevlar is a type of plastic, however, and you probably know I don’t love plastic, period!

I spoke to the people at Essentia, and they sent me the independent testing results for their mattresses—I saw no red flags and everything checked out as non-toxic. They also have a number of certifications, some of which are more legit than others. There is always chance that sneaky manufacturers might hide things under the “trade secret” laws, but I didn’t learn anything from Essentia that suggests that they are doing so. I personally will continue to buy our mattresses from manufacturers who use wool as a flame retardant, but if you want a memory foam mattress, this is your best bet!

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Hastens

These super expensive mattresses are very comfortable and contain no foam; they also carry the Oeko-Tex Standard 100 certification. The price puts them out of range for most people: starting at $10,000, Hastens mattresses go up to a whopping $99,000! Hastens does use steel springs in their mattresses, which some folks would prefer to avoid for the reasons listed above.

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Natural Mat

This brand appears to be made of all the Good Stuff and none of the bad, but doesn’t come with any certifications proving this. They do use wool for flame protection, which is a plus.

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SleepOnLatex 

This brand does not have GOLS certification, but does have Oeko-Tex, and doesn’t use the most dangerous flame retardants.

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Vivetique

This company claims to have  Oeko-Tex and the GOTS certifications, but have been unable to provide us with proof. Furthermore, one of our readers recently called us to relay a frustrating experience with Vivetique. Their website is somewhat maddening to navigate, too.

The Bad Stuff

The Sneaky Stuff

Don’t Be Fooled By:

• Natural latex. Petroleum comes from the earth, so petroleum-based mattresses can be “natural.” A “natural latex mattress” may only contain only 50% natural latex and may be blended with polyurethane foam and treated with VOCs. Look for mattresses that specify that they are made from 100% natural latex.
• “All-natural wool” or “pure wool” or “eco-wool.” Unless wool is certified organic, it is likely processed conventionally, with a variety of chemicals. You may or may not be okay with this (I feel that the flame retardants are more concerning). In some cases, a wool producer may not bother with organic certification, despite organic practices.
• Biofoam. Soy or plant foam is still made of mostly polyurethane; biofoam mattresses typically contain less than 20% plant material.
• Certifications. Oftentimes, these certifications apply only to certain parts of the mattress, not necessarily the mattress as a whole. In some cases the mattress company creates its own certification. You can read more about this in the section on certifications, above.
• Most of all, remember that there is a lot of deceptive marketing in the mattress world and it is not illegal to throw around terms like “natural,” “green” and even “organic” without actually having to prove it.

Less Expensive Ways to Sleep Safely

Do you want to co-sleep with your baby but don’t want to buy a new mattress? Consider a futon as an alternative to an expensive non-toxic mattress. They are much more comfortable than they were in your childhood, and I love the ones by Soaring Heart in particular. (Conventional or Sneaky futons will be loaded with all the same scary chemicals as mattresses.)

Here’s where I explain the difference between a mattress and a futon: