Americans spend more than 107 days, nearly one-third of each year, tucked and asleep in their beds. But those beds can be dangerous places. Mattress fires accounted for 440 deaths, 2,230 injuries, and $274 million in property losses annually from 1995 through 1999. As recently as March 2005, 11 family members in a New Orleans suburb died in a town-house fire after a candle ignited a mattress.

The 32-year-old federal law that sets the standard for mattress flammability in the U.S. may soon be improved, thanks to a California law that went into effect in January 2005. The California law requires mattresses (including crib and bassinet mattresses and detachable mattresses for sleeper sofas), box springs, and futons manufactured or sold in that state to be slow to ignite in the presence of an open flame, such as one from matches, lighters, or candles.

California’s mattress-flammability law, which Consumers Union, publisher of Consumer Reports, worked to pass in 2001, is the first of its kind and the toughest in the nation. By comparison, the current federal standard for mattress flammability is much weaker. Mattresses sold in every state other than California need only be resistant to a lighted cigarette. But more fires are caused by open-flame sources than by cigarettes, according to the U.S. Fire Administration.

In December 2004, the Consumer Product Safety Commission proposed that a standard similar to California’s open-flame standard become the law of the land. If enacted, the CPSC says, this law will “lead to mattresses that are a dramatic improvement, in terms of fire resistance and lives saved, over most mattresses currently on the market.”

Even if the feds move quickly to finalize their proposed rule, the law is unlikely to take effect nationally for at least a year. In the meantime, New Jersey is considering legislation that wouldcreate an open-flame standard for mattresses sold there.

A burning mattress can reach 1,000 kilowatts of heat within five minutes. When that happens, “flashover” can occur: An entire room’s contents ignite into flames. California’s law and the proposed CPSC standard mandate that mattress fires caused by an open flame have a much slower burn time and generate no more than 200 kilowatts of heat in a 30-minute test. Under real conditions, that would allow more time for people to discover and escape a fire.

Mattresses that are sold to California consumers must be labeled as meeting the open-flame standard. Californians can expect to pay $50 to $200 more per mattress for the additional materials involved in improving fire-resistance. Mattress designers can use chemicals to reduce flame spread. But several states, including California, have already passed laws forbidding the use of some flame-retardant chemicals that are suspected environmental and health hazards.

Open-flame-resistant beds are not fireproof. And other bedding products--comforters, pillows, blankets--contain highly flammable materials and are often the first items ignited by a fire. The CPSC has announced its intention to develop a separate safety standard to make such bedding products more resistant to fire.

We applaud California for leading the nation in reducing mattress flammability, and we support the CSPC’s proposal to adopt a law similar to California’s, making mattresses safer throughout the nation.

What you can do A new federal mandatory mattress-flammability standard went into effect in July 2007. Learn more about the new standard in this report.

then	& now

On a mattress, only you can rate comfort

1986

2005

Back in 1938, when we first tested mattresses, we warned consumers that only 15 states had laws requiring the sterilization of bedding materials, offering “pitifully little protection to the consumer.”

In our 1986 tests, we focused on structural integrity. Our testing machine had a ram shape like the human posterior (see photo above left). After thousands of controlled strokes of the ram to the center and edge of each mattress, our experts cut open the mattresses to assess internal damage.

We no longer do a physical test because our previous tests show that all but the cheapest mattresses are well made. Now the measure of a mattress is comfort. Only you can test that, but our June 2005 report on subscribers) can help you make a purchase.