This article describes consumer complaints traced to fiberglass fragments shed from an inner mattress cover liner found in some mattresses including certain foam mattress products.

Page top photo: this older mattress was wet by a building flood and, independent of any fiberglass concern, risks mold contamination.

It can not be cleaned effectively and should be discarded.

Problem Fiberglass Shedding from Some Mattress Covers

Reader Question: glass fibers from a memory foam mattress caused problem?

We need help with our problem with glass fibers from a [Zinus] memory foam mattress that we have been living with all over our home for a year and a half and just discovered this

We are in desperate need of advice/help.

Additional details provided by private email - on file, same date. - Anonymous by private email 2021/04/15

Reply by (mod) - Possible fiberglass hazards at Zinus (and other) Mattress Covers made with an inner fiberglass layer (for fire-retardance)

@Anon

Thanks for the alert - indeed we have seen a photo of a Zinus mattress cover stating

Outer Cover: 100% polyester

Inner Cover: 62% glass fiber, 29% acrylic, 9% cotton.

Photo: an example of a Zinus mattress cover as marketed online, e.g. at Amazon. [We don't know if fiberglass was used in the mattress cover shown in this image captured on 2021/04/15.]

What remains much needed is evidence that in normal use a fire-resistant mattress cover using fiberglass sheds glass fibres at a detectable level, or more-important, at a level that could be irritating or a risk to consumers.

With the outer cover undamaged, left-alone, and undisturbed you should not be detecting fiberglass shedding from the Zinus mattress.

Watch out: drawing on the Chandler case cited below, do not try to remove, modify, cut, damage, nor wash your fiberglass-containing mattress cover.

Other than that specific case, and until we have evidence of such shedding of fiberglass it is possible and significant, the anxiety about your mattress could be a worse health hazard for you than the mattress or its cover themselves.

You might get some additional comfort and peace of mind if you add an additional clean safe mattress cover over the factory-provided one. Or put the entire assembly, undisturbed, out for trash pickup.

Take a look at TEST KIT for DUST, MOLD, PARTICLES: INSTRUCTIONS

and making an exception to our "I've retired" policy, if you can collect two or three representative tape samples of the surface of your Zinus mattress cover, perhaps at the most-suspect or worn locations and at a cover seam, and provided you collect the samples and prepare the according to our instructions (it's easy and very inexpensive) I will take a look at the result in our forensic lab and advise you what I see.

I will also need a photo of the mattress cover and a photo of the mattress label or tag that describes the product. You are welcome to use the "Add Image" button to post photos here (one photo per comment, as many comments as you need).

Also see CHAIN OF CUSTODY FORM for ENVIRONMENTAL SAMPLES

Also see FIBERGLASS HAZARDS - topic home.

Researching the topic you'll see that there is some fiberglass in just about any indoor residential building dust sample; at high levels such particles can be a skin irritant; there has been considerable argument and research about the hazards of small fiberglass particles that in my OPINION go very under-reported as they're more-difficult to spot in a forensic lab unless the lab is looking for them.

More-recent research argues that very small fiberglass fragments, like their much-larger sisters, are not a significant health risk in buildings.

But though there are some exceptions (e.g. damaged HVAC ductwork), in most situations there is no measurable health hazard from normal fiberglass use and presence in homes.

Class action suit claiming that Zinus mattress covers that leaked fiberglass.

The Zinus - fiberglass shedding mattress cover lawsuit is identified below:

Chandler, et al. v. Amazon.com LLC, et al., Case No. 3:20-cv-00265, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois [PDF] Original source: https://www.classaction.org/media/chandler-et-al-v-amazon-com-llc-et-al.pdf

Excerpt: Several of the most popular models of Defendant Zinus, Inc.’s (“Zinus”) mattresses containing dangerous glass fibers (the “Affected Mattresses”) suffer from potentially catastrophic design defects and inadequate warning labels that can result in large amounts of glass fibers releasing from the mattresses into the surrounding environment. One vulnerable point for glass fibers to exit from the Affected Mattresses is when the removable outer cover of the mattress is unzipped.

Once the outer cover is removed, Zinus’s defective design (the “Defects”) exposes the inner cover which contains a large percentage of glass fibers. Large amounts of glass fibers then can be released into the environment causing serious injuries and property damage.

OPINION: Really? It will be important to review actual data including sampling by an independent expert. And again you can infer a repetition of the common advice: leave the mattress cover alone and cover it with another mattress cover.

Mar 15, 2021 ORDER Granting 69 PLAINTIFFS COMBINED MOTION TO VACATE DISCOVERY ORDER AND LIFT STAY OF ALL DISCOVERY.

Over Defendant's objection, Plaintiffs' motion to lift stay of discovery and to continue trial is GRANTED.

The final pretrial conference is reset to 10:00 a.m. on September 15, 2022, and jury trial is continued to 9:00 a.m. on October 17, 2022.

The stay on discovery is lifted. The parties shall submit a Joint Report of the Parties and Proposed Scheduling and Discovery Order no later than March 29, 2021.

Signed by Judge David W. Dugan on 3/15/2021. (kll)THIS TEXT ENTRY IS AN ORDER OF THE COURT. NO FURTHER DOCUMENTATION WILL BE MAILED. (Entered: 03/15/2021)

Mar 17, 2021 ORDER. Defendant's Motion to Dismiss (Doc. 36 ) is GRANTED in part. Counts I, III, VII and X of Plaintiffs' First Amended Complaint (Doc. 30 ) are hereby DISMISSED without prejudice.

Plaintiffs are granted leave to file a Second Amended Complaint within twenty-one (21) days of this Order. Action due 4/7/2021.

Defendant's Motion to Dismiss is DENIED as to Counts II, V, VIII and IX of the First Amended Complaint.

Defendant's Motion to Dismiss as to Counts IV and VI are DENIED as MOOT.

Because this Court is granting leave to the Plaintiffs to amend, the Defendant's Motion to Strike Class Allegations (Doc. 37 ) is DENIED without prejudice.

Defendant may refile its Motion to Strike Class Allegations directed to Plaintiffs' amended complaint. Signed by Judge David W. Dugan on 3/17/2021. (dmw2) (Entered: 03/17/2021)

OPINON: Facts needed to determine the extent of fiberglass hazard from Zinus or other fiberglass-containing mattress covers

1. Representative samples of settled dust

in areas closest to suspected source of hazardous fiberglass contamination suspected to be coming from the Zinus mattress cover. (Air testing can give some data but is unreliable in this application)

2. Representative samples of potential source of fiberglass fibers

from the Zinus matters cover exterior, interior, fiberglass-based component
(the court case represents that Zinus fiberglass fibers are larger in diameter than home insulation of fiberglass - which is interesting as I see considerable variation in the diameter of fiberglass insulation fibres;

however it is often possible to identify fiberglass in a dust sample by comparing several of its properties (including size range and resin binder) to other fiberglass materials in the building.)

3. Quantitative study of air and dust in the building

suspected to suffer fiberglass contamination, including samples showing dust distribution, fiberglass levels, and distribution pathways

4. Medical confirmation

that fiberglass is the source of or significant contributor to occupant complaints or health concerns.

5. Case history details,

for example pertinent to the means by which the fiberglass cover was opened, damaged, removed, washed, etc. by a consumer.

See also, from the case filing, the additional questions listed at:

55. Existence of common questions.

Common questions of law and fact exist as to all members of the Class and predominate over questions affecting only individual Class members, as is required by Fed. R. Civ. P. 23(a)(2).

and OPINION: the case that we have copied and provided here could be fatally flawed if it is not supported by actual, credibly-collected, sampled, studied, identified, and reported evidence of the levels of fiberglass released in a building from the treatment of the mattress cover as the case described.

(Owner removed the cover, washed it along with other clothing, dried it indoors, etc. damaging the cover and releasing fiberglass - to some unspecified unquantified level)

Watch out: do not damage your mattress cover

The court case cited above includes the following excerpt:

... a consumer posted a direct message entitled, “Can I wash my Zinus mattress cover?” to Zinus’s website.

Zinus responded by stating the following:

“Our mattresses are self-contained wonder delivery systems! Removing the mattress cover could jeopardize that system. The mattress cover isn’t washable, and removing it could inhibit the fire safety barrier, so please always leave the cover on.”

OPINION: the company might have warned that removing and washing fiberglass-lined mattress cover is likely to damage it and could thus spread irritating fiberglass in the building where those activities take place.

Does a fiberglass "contamination" warrant moving out and/or throwing away all your belongings?

Reader Question: I found my way here from a google search I did for fiberglass shedding from a mattress. At first, I found a facebook group that is for people going through this issue.

The advice I was given was to either move out of my home if I'm able to, or at the very least, get rid of all clothing, stuffed animals, carpets/rugs, shoes and to not bother trying to wash clothing in my washing machine because it will be forever contaminated with fiberglass.

I still have the mattress until I can afford to replace it, but I bought those zippered covers to go over it. Even with 3 covers over it, I think the fiberglass is making its way through all 3 covers, but not as much as when I first noticed it.

Ive had this mattress for 7 years and never noticed until recently. I'm still finding some on my clothing and the bedsheets and other areas in my home. I only threw out some items that I didn't want to bother cleaning.

Aside from that, I've done the first big clean up and I'm hoping to not have to throw out any more than I already have. I have a 12 year old with a collection of beloved stuffed animals, and to throw all those away would be so disappointing.

In your experience and opinion, does a fiberglass "contamination" warrant moving out and/or throwing away all your belongings?

In the group, several members told me that the fiberglass used in the mattresses is much worse than insulation and I'm now even more anxious because I can't afford to replace the mattress just yet, let alone throw out everything I own.

The mattress is in my room, but I worry because my 12 year old spends time in my room too, and if I'm still finding it on my clothes and other areas in my house, I worry I'm making things worse. I'm just really looking for a balanced answer opinion from someone that has experience with this material without the fear factor added in. On 2024-12-26 by Kristian

Moderator reply: NO

@Kristian,

Thank you for a helpful fiberglass question.

My opinions on fiberglass contamination come from five decades of field investigation as well as operation of a forensic microscopy lab in which I've looked at a lot of field samples of dust as well as at fiberglass samples themselves.

Other than the offending mattress itself, if it's one of the known-problem mattresses, nothing else should need to be thrown out. Not linens, not toys, not furnishings. In most cases cleaning those is sufficiently inexpensive that it's worth doing. (In comparison, mold-contaminated upholstered furniture or carpeting are nearly impossible to clean completely and are more-often tossed out. )

Furthermore, people advising you to move probably are reacting from fear, not factual, scientific knowledge. And they may not understand that unless someone moving out replaces absolutely everything they own (or have it cleaned adequately) moving those items into a new home simply brings along whatever dust contaminants they were fleeing. (And if cleaning their things would have worked to allow them to move, then cleaning ought to have allowed them to stay.)

My view is that we do not need to seek a "zero level" indoor fiberglass particle contamination level and in fact except perhaps for certain "clean rooms" used in chip manufacturing and the like, such a level is either impossible or economically infeasible. I can find at least some fiberglass fragments in almost any building.

I think that a common issue is that people are too often unduly frightened by what's easily found on the web and not always authoritative, expert, nor researched. Skin irritation or respiratory irritation add to that worry and sometimes make themselves worse. For example if I scratch at itchy places on my skin I can develop sores or scabs that I may then, wrongly, think came from fiberglass.

In most cases, a combination of damp wiping and HEPA vacuuming can get the indoor level of irritating dust particles, including fiberglass shed from a mattress cover, down to trace levels at which point there would be no meaningful nor probably even detectable respiratory or skin irritation hazard.

Hard surfaces get damp wiped. Remember to keep folding and then toss out your damp wipe. Don't just keep wiping over many items or large areas with the same wipe as in that case the wipe simply spreads the particles around rather than removing them.

Clothes and other things (some plush toys) can be laundered. In worst-cases I'd launder a couple of times. For extremely-contaminated soft goods that are being laundered remember to use an extra rinse or two and to run a rinse cycle through the washer after cleaning those items.

So when you say you're still finding some fiberglass on clothes, bedsheets and other areas, before guessing further I'd want to know how those items have been cleaned and when with respect to your covering the problem mattress, and I'd need to know how you're "finding" fiberglass: with what method, and at what quantitative levels.

About covering your mattress, if you're using an impermeable cover, perhaps plastic or a dust-mite-proof-rated cover, then I other than a bit of cross-contamination that occurs while you're in the process of installing the cover I would not expect any fiberglass shedding to continue to pass through the covering material. Certainly for plastic like materials that'd have to be zero, and for a dust-mite cover, since dust mites and their fecals themselves are microscopically small particles, those, like small fiberglass fragments, ought to be close to zero.

Strip the bed, damp wipe/HEPA vac the covered mattress, clean the bed linens. And clean the surrounding area before re-making the bed.

If your floor surfaces are carpeted, that's another matter - and far more difficult to clean completely - nearly impossible, so if that's a factor in your home let me know and we'll discuss that further.

A related opinion and worry I have is that being very frightened about this issue can itself become so stressful that it becomes its own health hazard.

So I'm glad that you're seeking a calm, balanced approach.

(Many years ago at an historic property in New York, the U.S. National Park Service hired me to investigate just such a case. Their cleaning contractor was using the same wipes so long that they basically spread problematic dust and mold from the original source over to everything else that they were wiping. My solution was in part to have them toss their wipes much more frequently.)

Materials that can be washed or dry cleaned can be treated that way.

Daniel Friedman

 

Research on Fire Retardant Mattress Cover Safety & Fiberglass Hazards

Other research on fire safety, fire retardants, in mattress covers. I have not (yet) found independent, scholarly research asserting that there is a measurable health hazard from fiberglass shedding from mattress covers. Let's both look further.

• Damant, Gordon H., and Said Nurbakhsh. "Heat release tests of mattresses and bedding systems." Journal of fire sciences 10, no. 5 (1992): 386-410.
  Abstract
  
  In part 1 of this study, a comprehensive full-scale fire test pro gram has been conducted on a wide variety of residential and institutional mattress constructions. Innerspring, solid core, futon and jail pad mattresses were included, along with several styles of foundations.
  
  In addition several bed ding systems were tested together with a standard set of bedding components to further evaluate the effects and contribution of those items to the combustion of the mattress/foundation combinations.
  
  The foremost objective of this work was to gather reliable test data on a wide range of bedding material combinations. It is anticipated that this information will assist bedding manufacturers in developing state-of-the-art materials and in producing bedding products with greatly enhanced fire safety.
• Damant, Gordon H. "Flammability and Material Trends in the Furnishings Industry." Flame Retardants 101: Basic Dynamics (1998): 181.
  Excerpt:
  Flocked fiberglass fabrics were available for curtains and drapes, wall coverings, mattress tickings and upholstery fabrics. The range of flocked fabrics available for furniture and mattress applications served the purpose of both an exterior cover fabric and an excellent fire blocker …
• Kleinhenz, Julie, Paul Ferkul, Richard Pettegrew, Kurt R. Sacksteder, and James S. T'ien. "One‐sided flame spread phenomena of a thermally thin composite cotton/fiberglass fabric." Fire and Materials: An International Journal 29, no. 1 (2005): 27-37.
  
• Nurbakhsh, Said, and John Mccormack. "A review of the Technical Bulletin 129 full scale test method for flammability of mattresses for public occupancies." Journal of fire sciences 16, no. 2 (1998): 105-124.
  
• Thomas, Treye A., and Patricia M. Brundage. "Quantitative assessment of potential health effects from the use of fire retardant (FR) chemicals in mattresses." Washington, DC: US Consumer Product Safety Commission (2006).
• Examples of uses of fiberglass in mattresses
  • Balboni, Allen J. "Electric heating mattress." U.S. Patent 4,162,393, issued July 24, 1979.
  • Carson, R. "Fluid filled mattress." U.S. Patent 3,736,604, issued June 5, 1973.
  • Courts, Benjamin D. "Sanitary mattress." U.S. Patent 1,211,548, issued January 9, 1917.
  • Ferziger, Daniel, and Jerry Lippman. "Coated fabric and mattress ticking." U.S. Patent 4,801,493, issued January 31, 1989.
  • Ferziger, Daniel, and Jerry Lippman. "Coated fabric and mattress ticking." U.S. Patent 4,526,830, issued July 2, 1985.
  • Fraige, Richard. "Waterbed mattress." U.S. Patent 4,301,560, issued November 24, 1981.
  • Klancnik, Alvin R. "Fire-resistant mattress and high strength fire-retardant composite." U.S. Patent 4,504,991, issued March 19, 1985.
  • Owens Jr, Don E. "Bed mattress having a security container." U.S. Patent 6,684,432, issued February 3, 2004.
• Research on Dermatitis from Fiberglass Mattress Covers
  • Hogan, Daniel J., and Megan Morrison. "Fiberglass, Dusts." In Kanerva's Occupational Dermatology, pp. 415-426. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, 2012. Harvard
    
  • Sertoli, A., S. Francalanci, and S. Giorgini. "Fiberglass dermatitis." In Handbook of Occupational Dermatology, pp. 122-134. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, 2000
    

  If you need someone on site you can find a suitable expert by discussing your needs with some of the professionals listed in directories found at
  CONSULTANTS & EXPERTS DIRECTORIES

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Continue reading at FIBERGLASS FRAGMENT HAZARDS in AIR or DUST, or select a topic from the closely related articles below, or see the complete ARTICLE INDEX.

Or see FIBERGLASS SHEDDING from MATTRESS FAQs for questions & answers about mattress fiberglass shedding that were posted originally on this page.

Or see these

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  • AIR FILTERS, FIBERGLASS PARTICLES
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  • FIBERGLASS ENVIRO-SCARE
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• FIBERGLASS INSULATION EXPOSURE LIMITS
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• MORGELLONS SYNDROME

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