Materials Testing: Flammability and Safety – Sleep on It

The recent loss of an hour of sleep due to the US time change to Daylight Savings Time, made me really appreciate my bed.  Cotton used in bedding and children’s pajamas is likely to be coated with flame retardant, as are the mattresses.  So once again, we are daily using, or sleeping on, another product, whose safety is due to a firm like NSL Analytical Services who tests the chemical compounds used as retardants, to determine consumer safety. 

Flame retardants are important to consumer safety, but the chemicals in them can be harmful to human health, noted for being disruptive to endocrines and the thyroid, impactful to the immune system and reproductive health to humans.  California Proposition 65 statute states that no person in the course of doing business shall “knowingly and intentionally expose any individual to a listed chemical” without first giving a clear and reasonable warning.  A list of chemical substances that California has determined to cause cancer or birth defects, or reproductive harm is published by California’s governor each year.  Products manufactured for furniture, especially beds and sheets need to be tested.

NSL Analytical Services has inhouse laboratories outfitted with the latest equipment for testing chemical content specific for the Proposition 65 label and content law.  In fact, because these test requests are so common, NSL has developed testing bundles for California Proposition 65. 

Available California Proposition 65 Testing Bundles:

• Prop 65 Elemental Bundle: Lead (Pb), Cadmium (Cd), and Nickel (Ni) Content, Element Analysis by ICPMS to determine detection of Pb, Cd and Ni.
• Prop 65 Bundle: Phthalates Content Bundle, This is a Pass/Fail test to determine the content level of Phthalates (DBP, DBIP, BBP, DEHP, DIDP, DNHP/DHEXP, DCHP, DPENP, DINP).
• Prop 65 Phthalates + Lead (Pb) Bundle.
• Prop 65 Phthalates, Lead (Pb), Cadmium (Cd) Bundle.
• Prop 65 BPA Content Bundle
  Total BPA (Solvent Extraction). Total BPA (content) is measured in parts per million (ppm). This tells us how much is actually in the product.
  BPA Leachable (Synthetic Perspiration). This tells us how much BPA can be extracted out.

For more information, visit NSL Analytical Services on ResourceShark.com, or call (877) 560-3943.