Do Purple Mattresses Contain Fiberglass?

The Purple Mattress is one of the most popular mattresses on the current market, and with good reason. It’s cooling, responsive, and offers several different options for support.

While you may be concerned that Purple Mattresses contain fiberglass because of their gel top layer, the truth is you don’t have to worry about it at all. Purple Mattresses are made using safer and better alternatives than fiberglass.

The Purple Mattress Brand

The Purple Mattress brand offers a unique technology for keeping their beds cool and making them more responsive – the Purple Grid.

The Purple Grid is made of a hyperelastic polymer gel that bounces back as soon as you move and also works to draw heat away from your body while you sleep. The Grid features square cutouts that make it about 80 percent air. That means it’s moisture-wicking and breathable as well as thermally conductive, establishing a cooling mattress.

What is Fiberglass?

Fiberglass is a special type of plastic that’s reinforced with tiny glass fibers. The glass fibers make the plastic extremely strong and resilient without compromising its flexibility.

Fiberglass is not just resilient, it’s also highly versatile. Just about everything you can think of can either be made of fiberglass or feature fiberglass components. Fiberglass is in your car, fiberglass is in the insulation of your house, and fiberglass might even be inside your mattress.

Why Would a Mattress Have Fiberglass?

Fiberglass is so versatile that it can actually be spun into a yarn that is then woven into a fabric known as glass cloth. Glass cloth is often used in cheap and lower-quality mattresses as a fire barrier.

Many of the ingredients inside most mattresses are highly flammable. This is especially true of synthetic fabrics and foams, which can ignite with surprising ease. For this reason, all mattresses made in the U.S. are legally required to pass certain regulations for fire safety. Having a flame retardant directly under the cover is one of these regulations.

Fiberglass cannot ignite. Rather, if it’s exposed to heat, it will melt. This creates a barrier over the foam that prevents it from bursting into flame. However, considering all of the health threats posed by fiberglass, mattress manufacturers often look to safer alternatives.

Drawbacks of Fiberglass

There are several major health threats that come along with fiberglass exposure. When fiberglass is uncovered and exposed to the air, it can release millions upon millions of tiny glass particles into the air. These particles may float around or coat surfaces. Floating particles can even get into ventilation systems and be circulated back into the air over and over.

When you’re exposed to fiberglass particles, you may experience a range of symptoms. Getting them on your skin can cause rashes and skin irritation. Getting them in your eyes can cause symptoms of dry eye and even blurred vision. And breathing them can lead to chronic lung infection and breathing problems.

All this happens because the tiny glass particles cause thousands of microscopic cuts all over the parts of your body that get exposed to them.

The bad news is that it’s easier than you might think to be exposed to fiberglass in your mattress. For example, if you remove the cover to wash it, this will immediately release fiberglass particles. Fiberglass particles may also get released if the mattress cover becomes worn or torn.

Shipping mattresses in a box can also cause fiberglass particles to be released even in a brand-new mattress because rolling a mattress and crushing it into a box may tear the sock inside. This allows the fiberglass particles to work their way through the cover.

Benefits of Fiberglass

The reality is there aren’t any benefits to having fiberglass inside a mattress. The only benefit of fiberglass is that it is the cheapest way for mattress manufacturers to meet fire safety regulations. This can result in a cheaper mattress, but when the tradeoff of that cheaper mattress is your health, it’s best to just pay a little more.

Fiberglass Alternatives for Mattresses

There are actually several natural fiberglass alternatives that mattress companies commonly used to meet fire safety standards without including this dangerous material in their mattresses. You have silk, and thistle, and other plant-based materials. But the most common and potentially the best natural fire retardant for mattresses is wool.

Wool is very difficult to ignite. Even if it does ignite, it’s often capable of internally extinguishing flame without allowing it to spread. Furthermore, wool actually increases the comfort of the mattress by adding an extra layer of pressure relief and breathability underneath the cover. And it’s not that expensive or difficult to source either!

How to Tell if a Mattress Has Fiberglass

Manufacturers are required by law to list their ingredients on a label or white sheet accompanying their mattresses. So the easiest way to determine if your mattress has fiberglass inside it is to look at the ingredients label. This label should tell you whether or not fiberglass is inside your mattress and what percentage of the mattress is made of fiberglass.

If you don’t have a label, look at the care instructions for the mattress. Many times these will be on the tag of the cover itself. If the tag warns against removing the cover, you should suspect the mattress has a fiberglass fire barrier underneath.

You can also keep in mind the mattress brands and sellers that have come into question for their use of fiberglass:

• Ashley Furniture Mattresses
• Lucid Mattresses
• Zinus Mattresses
• Nectar mattresses
• Casper mattresses
• Big Lots mattresses
• Amazon mattresses
• Vibe mattresses
• Olee Sleep mattresses
• Leesa mattresses
• Some Helix mattresses

Is Purple a Good Mattress Brand?

Purple is a good mattress brand. Not only is the Purple Grid a unique and enjoyable solution to mattress overheating and body impression problems. Purple also avoids using fiberglass as a fire barrier in any of their mattresses.

Instead, Purple uses a specialized silica fabric fire retardant inside their mattresses. The silica fiber is woven into a yarn cocoon so that no part of the silica itself is exposed to the surface of the cloth.

This ensures your skin cannot come into contact with the silica itself. Even if you do wind up contacting the silica fibers, silica is not toxic when it contacts the skin. And, unlike fiberglass, this silica yarn cannot be released into the air.

Of course, you’re free to consider Purple mattress alternatives. Just because a bed is well-crafted doesn’t mean it will suit your sleeping style, after all.

SEE ALSO: Purple Mattress Black Friday Sales

FAQs

Does the Purple Grid contain fiberglass?

No part of the Purple Mattress lineup contains fiberglass. The Purple Grid is a hyperelastic gel polymer, which does not contain any fiberglass. Furthermore, Purple uses a specialized silica fabric as a fire barrier over its mattresses’ internal components. This silica fabric is still a synthetic material, but it is much safer than fiberglass and will not cause health problems.

What is the best fiberglass alternative for a mattress?

The best non-fiberglass fire barrier for a mattress is likely wool. This natural textile is almost impossible to ignite without some kind of accelerant. Furthermore, wool is very good at extinguishing flame internally.

This means that even if one small part of a wool garment ignites, it’s very unlikely that the entire garment will burn. This translates into a superior fire retardant for mattresses. Best of all, wool also increases the comfort of your sleep surface by adding an extra layer of breathability and pressure relief underneath the cover.

Are mattresses containing fiberglass dangerous?

Mattresses that contain fiberglass can absolutely be dangerous. Fiberglass can easily work its way through the cover of a mattress and coat your sleep surface in tiny shards of glass. This can leave you with thousands of microscopic cuts all over your skin, eyes, and airways.

This means you can experience irritation and more serious symptoms in all three of these major body systems. For this reason, it’s better to avoid mattresses that contain fiberglass.

Why would a mattress need fiberglass?

The only reason that any mattress would ever contain fiberglass is fire protection. Many of the most common materials used to make mattresses are highly flammable. This means the chances of your mattress igniting while you’re sleeping on it are unacceptably high without some sort of fire mitigation.

Fiberglass is the cheapest option to prevent mattress foams and fabrics from igniting. And this is why it is woven underneath the covers of cheaper mattresses.

Can I remove the fiberglass in my mattress on my own?

You should avoid trying to remove the fiberglass inside your mattress on your own. Not only can you expose yourself to fiberglass, causing multiple symptoms that can be long-lasting. You can also unintentionally make your mattress much more flammable by removing its only fire protection.

If you have a mattress containing fiberglass and can’t afford to replace it, use an impermeable mattress protector instead. Mattress protectors are made to prevent dirt and moisture from making their way into your mattress, but a mattress protector can also prevent fiberglass particles from escaping your mattress at the same time.

Bottom Line

With all the alternatives out there, there’s really no reason to purchase a mattress containing fiberglass. These mattresses are the cheapest of the cheap and can expose you to multiple health risks. It’s better to choose a mattress without fiberglass from the start.

The good news is you’re free as a bird when it comes to purchasing a Purple Mattress because Purple mattresses are entirely free of fiberglass.