What is the difference between a “California” mattress and a regular mattress? What Flame retardants or chemicals do you use to meet the law?
Effective January 1, 2005, the State of California enacted Technical Bulletin 603 (TB 603). This regulation has to deal with an “open flame” test for mattresses. This is a more stringent regulation regarding flammability than the previous Federal standard (CFR- 1632). The Federal government adopted a slightly more stringent standard on July 1, 2007. All of our standard innerspring mattresses were compliant without any changes needing to be made and we use a flame-blocker barrier fabric on our foam mattresses.There are two ways to have mattresses meet the new standard. One is to load them up with flame retardant chemicals and the other is to use a barrier fabric made of cellulose material. At Colgate Mattress, we chose to use a barrier fabric which resists the open flame ignition in accordance with the law. We have never used a chemical agent in the foam we use in our crib mattresses.
