Yikes! Talk about informing folks with wrong information. We’ve seen the following on quite a few websites so thought it was worth posting:
(quote): “Latex doesn’t catch fire, so no chemical flame retardants are necessary, and none are added.” (unquote)
The above statement, taken from another website that sells natural and organic mattresses, is inaccurate. Latex DOES burn, and it burns pretty easily. It doesn’t matter if the latex is natural or synthetic, it will burn… although the fumes are different.
Here’s another excerpt from an article written by a so-called expert who sells organic bedding:
(quote): “A Natural latex mattress, whose foam is made from the latex sap of the rubber tree and which require no fire retardants because natural rubber does not burn well.” (unquote)
Once again, the above statement is dead wrong. Natural latex rubber actually burns quite nicely. To clear things up: Latex DOES burn. It may not burn as fast (or with the toxic smoke) as it’s petrochemical synthetic foam cousin, but it will definitely burn baby burn. I guess you could call all these wrong facts “WEBSITE INFERNOS”. So folks, be very careful what you read out there… or you could get burned (pardon the pun).
Above photos show our actual burning of dunlop natural latex rubber.