The award-winning 2012 Chicago Tribune investigative ‘Playing With Fire’ Toxic Hot Seat threads together an intricate story of manipulation that details how Big Tobacco skilfully convinced fire safety officials to back a standard that, in effect, requires all furniture to be filled with toxic flame retardants. The film continues to untangle how the chemical companies obscure the risks to public health and misrepresent chemical safety data by paying ‘experts’ to alarm legislators and the public about the deadly risks of removing chemical flame retardants from homes.

Unlike the US where these toxic fire retardant chemicals are used just in the filling materials (such as foam), here in the UK manufacturers use considerably more of these chemicals as the fabrics are also back-coated to pass UK fire regulations. Passionate about making families aware of the chemicals used in the UK, Cottonsafe® Natural Mattress are on a crusade to replace them with a safe alternative.