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Many mattress brands are putting fiberglass in their mattresses. Does Leesa mattress have fiberglass? Your answer is just below. We went into the nitty-gritty of Leesa flame retardant materials and laid it all out clearly so you don’t have to worry whether this cute-looking mattress is covertly dangerous or not.
Does Leesa mattress have fiberglass inside?
Based on what Leesa says, yes, Leesa mattresses DO contain traces of fiberglass.
However, you shouldn’t be concerned because their fire retardant sock is 100% safe. It does not contain the “bad” fibers of glass which break and then leak and wreak havoc.
Their sock is made of polyester and a type of glass fiber that acts just like any other thread (even when broken or torn, it remains completely safe). Glass cores are treated at high temperatures and coated in plastic “sheath” several times, which makes these fibers highly durable.
This is why I wouldn’t call this type of fire-retardant fabric “fiberglass”. Many companies which use materials exactly like this insist that this is not fiberglass, especially after fiberglass got a bad name in recent years. Leesa unfortunately still uses this vocabulary, and that’s why I can’t say it’s a fiberglass-free mattress.
However, in actuality, Leesa is far from being a dangerous fiberglass mattress and it would be completely unfair to compare Leesa’s proprietary fire barrier to the dangerous fiberglass found in cheap memory foam mattresses.
You can see what the sock looks like below.
The reason this type of glass fiber mesh shouldn’t be equated to the dangerous fiberglass found in Zinus or Nectar mattresses is that it is more expensive to produce, does not shed glass particles whatsoever, and nobody ever got hurt from this material, which brings me to the answer to the very first question from above – no, none of Amazon reviews mention fiberglass (compare that to hundreds if not thousands of complaints about Zinus mattresses).
To make sure I’m correct, I asked Leesa the following question:
What would happen if I damaged/tore the fire sock open? Would it leak glass?
Leesa customer service took the time and explained it quite well:
There is no glass within your mattress. If your concern is fiberglass, you are still safe.
The Leesa fire sock has silica and rayon fibers, which contain a trace amount of fiberglass which is needed to extinguish a flame.
It’s not anything that you can feel or will harm you, or that will “come out” of the mattress, even with a tear. While there is fiberglass, that is present it is only on the inside fire retardant (FR) portion of the cover and is actually a portion of the FR thread and is completely encased within other thread components, so those components are very small trace amounts of fiberglass encapsulated. They don’t float around in the air and this has been thoroughly tested.
FR Socks are the synthetic material that wraps around the inner core of foam mattresses. It is a thin mesh material. Its purpose is to offer an additional layer of protection and slow the combustion of a mattress in order to not use chemicals. The mattresses are then covered in a non-removable cover.
To get a sense of what that means, imagine a pool noodle. The central empty space of the pool noodle is where the glass would be in the FR thread. The other thread components would be the outside ‘shell’ of the pool noodle. Glass plays a crucial role in the FR properties as it will not combust, it helps to maintain the integrity of the fire barrier during the test of the 16 CFR Part 1633 Open Flame Standard.
The cheap mattresses leak fiberglass whether or not they are damaged and whether or not a person removed the outer cover.
The small fiberglass particles float around and get hung up on clothes and skin, and end up everywhere, causing lots of health issues and damage around the house. Trust me, cleaning up fiberglass that leaked out of a mattress is a massive pain.
At the moment, there are class-action fiberglass lawsuits both ongoing and being prepared against these companies.
An interesting anecdote I found on Reddit – one guy said that he chopped up his Leesa mattress because he had to move and he decided to dispose of it in smaller chunks. He claims there was zero fiberglass exposure, and he even claims that Leesa mattresses do not contain fiberglass.
Are there any other toxic materials in Leesa mattresses?
Leesa mattresses are pretty safe to use.
Some of their products are memory foam mattresses and some are hybrids (memory foam on top and coil spring as support). Their covers are made of polyester or a blend of polyester and natural materials such as cotton or wool.
Memory foam is not a natural material and as such, it contains and off-gasses chemicals that are not the healthiest thing to inhale.
Leesa foam is CertiPUR-US Certified, which means that their foam is free from many harmful chemicals, including ozone depleters, PBDE flame retardants, mercury, lead, heavy metals, and formaldehyde. On top of that, Leesa memory foam mattresses are supposed to have low off-gassing emissions.
Although made with overall safe (less harmful) chemicals, these mattresses are still releasing chemical fumes and you will be experiencing that “new mattress smell” for a while. If you are sensitive, it might actually bother you.
Risks of fiberglass mattresses
So, we’ve determined that there are glass fibers that are completely safe and that you can find in a few different brands (not just Leesa). TempurPedic mattresses have glass fibers, for example. Helix mattresses also use a similar type of glass fibers. Zero risks of sleeping on those. The small amount of glass fibers that they do contain are encased in a protective plastic sheath which for some reason makes them resistant and stable; finally, they don’t shed glass particles.
On the other hand, cheap fiberglass mattresses (Nectar, Zinus) are made of glass fibers which do shed tiny glass fibers that look like short white hairs all over the place – onto surrounding materials, through the mattress cover, into people’s noses, eyes, skin, etc.
The health concerns and risks of sleeping on those are huge.
Fiberglass is a really dangerous material, and here are the risks:
Health risks
- eye irritation
- sore throat/throat irritation
- skin rashes/skin irritation/itches
- worsened asthma or chronic breathing problems
- coughing and/or wheezing
- nose irritation or nose bleeding
- lung scarring
Risks of having to buy new property
- bed and mattress
- pillows and sheets
- carpets
- clothes, shoes, and any items made of fabric
- upholstered furniture, cushions
- toys
- AC units
Financial risks
- having to buy thousands of dollars worth of house items and clothes
- medical bills
- temporary housing costs
- loss of working days
- a standstill in any major financial plans
- draining of savings account, taking out bank loans
- (worst case scenario, but it’s happened to people) having to sell the house
How to tell if a mattress contains fiberglass
There are four main things to look at in order to find out whether a mattress contains fiberglass:
- Look at the tag
- Contact the company
- Price
- Place of manufacture
Look at the tag
Some mattress brands clearly say that their mattresses contain fiberglass as the flame retardant and others use words like glass fibers, silica, or glass wool.
If it’s a high-end mattress and it contains “silica”, it’s likely that the mattress doesn’t contain fiberglass that’s harmful, but only the safe, core-spun fibers with small amounts of glass.
Another thing to look at is the amount of glass fibers. If it’s 50% or more, you want to avoid the mattress. The ones made of the safe type of glass fibers tend to contain less than 30% of silica.
Contact the company
You can contact the company and ask whether the model you’re interested in is a fiberglass-free mattress and if they could explain the specifics of their flame-retardant material.
Some of them mince their words and their response might confuse you, but if they insist on unclear answers, you can look for information elsewhere (if anyone found fiberglass leaking out of their mattress, they would have written about it). Alternatively, you can just avoid the brand.
Price
Fiberglass mattresses tend to cost somewhere in the vicinity of $200-$400.
Lots of families were looking for cheap mattress brands, but unfortunately, those also use cheap flame retardants. The fiberglass material is either sewn into the mattress covers or lies right under the outer layer of the cover, usually in the form of a sock.
Place of manufacture
Almost every fiberglass mattress was made in China or elsewhere in Asia.
Mattresses made in the USA are typically made of safe materials, so there haven’t been any US-made mattress scandals regarding fire retardants, at least not to my knowledge.
What was that? The “Made in the USA” Nectar mattress is known to leak fiberglass? A couple of lawsuits determined that Nectar lied about where their mattresses were made. They are actually from China.
FAQs
It depends on the model, but the cover can be made of polyester, or in fancier models, a combination of organic cotton, merino wool, and polyester yarn which they derive from recycled bottles.
Leesa Legend Hybrid is their most sustainable model. The cover is made of organic cotton, merino wool, and polyester yarn made of up to 73 recycled plastic water bottles and the pocket springs are made of 95% recycled steel and other materials. The foam is still not eco-friendly, though.
Conclusion
Leesa mattresses contain a small amount of glass fibers encased in rayon: although they call it fiberglass, most other mattress companies insist that this is not fiberglass because it’s not dangerous whatsoever. You can open up the mattress, cut up the fire-retardant sock, and still won’t be harmed.
This composite material is highly durable and the glass component in it is important to quickly stop the spread of fire in case the mattress catches fire.
The dangerous fiberglass found in some mattresses causes skin rashes, eye irritation, and a host of other health issues because it is brittle and leaks out through the mattress cover. Sleeping on a fiberglass mattress can cost a lot more than what you paid for the mattress and it’s measured in thousands of dollars.
Next step: Check out the best natural organic mattresses. We found the safest brands and rated them in categories including materials used, comfort, and durability. If you’re worried about fiberglass exposure, try one of these brands.
With over 5 years experience writing about sleep and mattresses, she's considered one of the go-to experts on the topic.
She likes cycling, nature, art, and languages. She pays special attention to providing you with accurate and useful information when it comes to your sleep quality.
After solving her personal sleep and tiredness problems, she is on to help others by sharing this invaluable information.
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