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Mattress brands use different materials to help reduce the risk of fires. Fiberglass is commonly used as a fire retardant by cheaper mattress brands. Does Nectar mattress contain fiberglass? In this article, we go over the construction of their products and find out.
Do Nectar mattresses have fiberglass?
Nectar mattresses do have fiberglass and, together with other similar brands, they are becoming notorious for the size and amount of problems they cause in case a mattress gets damaged and starts leaking fiberglass.
We reached out to the Nectar support team and they confirmed that their mattresses have a fire-retardant sock made of silica.
Law firms are currently collecting claims from individuals who have been harmed by fiberglass exposure from Nectar for a potential fiberglass mattress lawsuit. We recommend reading our guide to the Nectar mattress lawsuit for more information.
Are Nectar mattresses safe?
We wouldn’t call them safe, because sleeping on fiberglass can’t be anything other than gambling. Thousands of people had no problem with their Nectar mattresses. Hundreds were injured by fiberglass. Although many were lucky, it still sounds a lot like gambling.
Also, we’ve known about fiberglass for about an entire century now and we still aren’t given any palpable evidence that it’s not cancerogenic. This material is still in the “we don’t know” category, and it’s placed in so many beds!
If you ask Nectar, they’ll say their mattresses are completely safe. They even say that since their mattresses have fiberglass, they are free of harmful chemical fire retardants. This way they try to make fiberglass seem like a great thing to have in your mattress.
The truth is, you just can’t know if and when your mattress will begin to leak fiberglass. The fire-retardant sock that’s just under the mattress cover might hold on well for a long time. Still, some people received a new mattress that was already leaking fiberglass. It’s not that surprising when you know that these mattresses are compressed into vacuum-sealed bags and then shipped to your door. Casper mattresses don’t contain fiberglass, so if you’re looking for an alternative they’re definitely a brand to consider.
There’s no way for us to know what any mattress went through before it gets to a customer. The mattress might pass all checks in the factory, but we don’t know how much damage is done to it in the vacuuming process and during shipping (with all of the throwing and tumbling). This might break the fine fibers into tiny pieces and you might open up a mattress that will start leaking fiberglass right away.
Alternatively, the fire retardant sock might break after some time of normal use. Finally, if you make the mistake of ever removing the cover, you’ll expose the fiberglass, and then you’re on for a nightmare ride. There are ways to clean fiberglass from a mattress, but it’s a long, painful process.
How can you tell if a mattress has fiberglass inside?
Your first go-to is the mattress label. It has fiberglass if the label says any of following words: fiberglass, silica, glass wool, or glass fiber.
But they might still be using misleading language, so people don’t even know that there’s fiberglass inside. To make it worse, a lot of these beds come with a zipper on the cover. To fix this unfortunate design, they might place a “do not remove cover” tag on a zipper or somewhere else on the mattress.
You should be especially careful if your mattress is a memory foam mattress, if it’s cheap, and if it’s made in China.
This doesn’t mean that all memory foam mattresses contain fiberglass, or that all cheap mattresses from China use the same fire retardant. It’s just that mattresses that fall into these categories are more likely to contain it.
Perhaps it’s easier to search for fiberglass-free mattresses online. Just a quick heads-up – popular mattress manufacturers that put a fiberglass layer inside of their mattresses include Nectar, Zinus, Linenspa, Lucid, and Ashley, among others.
If you’re unsure about a particular brand, you can check out the website, but they might avoid mentioning fiberglass altogether. They might just vaguely describe a fire retardant protector of some sort without stating the actual materials. If they openly take pride in not using fiberglass in their mattresses, then their products are probably truly fiberglass-free.
When in doubt, contact the company
Finally, you can call or email the company and ask them directly to tell you if their mattresses contain fiberglass. They should give you a very clear no and then say what kind of fire retardant they are using instead. Don’t accept any evasive or partial answer.
Some companies say that some of their mattresses “may have” silica or fiberglass, and others “might contain” other types of blends (or whatnot), but that they can’t really give you an answer about every single mattress because their mattresses are produced in a “variety of factories” all over the world. This is just a long-winded answer that aims to water down the fact that they do use fiberglass.
How dangerous is fiberglass?
Fiberglass is the most dangerous for people who work in fiberglass production facilities because although they wear protection, they still get exposed to it and might even inhale fiberglass particles fairly regularly. Over the course of many years, they might develop lung cancer.
Fiberglass is considered a possible carcinogen and scientific reports keep stating that there isn’t enough evidence that it is cancerogenic. This is absolutely inexcusable considering that the law requires mattresses to have flame retardants and that hundreds of thousands if not millions of people sleep on fiberglass! We need to know for sure whether it’s safe or not.
Fiberglass exposure at work seems to be much more dangerous because when a mattress starts leaking fiberglass, people usually notice it rather quickly because they develop a rash and breathing difficulties. Then they take action to remove the bed and clean the house. This short-term exposure to glass fibers is likely not as bad as a 20-year-long exposure in a factory.
Also, not all glass fibers are the same. Some of them can get dissolved inside the body and other types can’t. Those tiny fibers that stay in the system probably pose a higher risk of cancer because they keep hurting the tissues inside the body. After years of these tiny injuries, it makes sense that some people would end up developing cancer.
Signs of fiberglass exposure
Some fiberglass exposure signs are very similar to toxic symptoms caused by chemical off-gassing. The major difference is that, unlike off-gassing, fiberglass causes skin rashes. These are the most common signs:
- skin irritation, rash, and pain
- eye irritation or redness
- stomach discomfort
- soreness of the nose, nasal cavity, or throat irritation
- coughing, wheezing, sneezing
Some people might not notice any changes on their own skin, but their children or pets might get bad rashes, extremely itchy skin, and breathing problems.
One of the worst problems with fiberglass contamination is that these tiny shards are like dust – they are airborne and they end up everywhere. Every nook and cranny, every crease and crevice. It’s hard to imagine a more daunting task than cleaning it all up.
How to clean up after fiberglass contamination
For fiberglass contamination cleaning, you need time and patience. And then some more time and some more patience.
You have to determine how far fiberglass has traveled. If it just started leaking, maybe it’s only in your bedroom. If it’s been like that for a while, it’s likely got into every carpet, clothing, and toy you have in the house. It can even get into the HVAC system. Use a flashlight to inspect – you’ll be able to see sparkly dust in all places where fiberglass landed. If any of the rooms was unused for a while and is fiberglass-free, you might be able to sleep in there while you’re cleaning up, but it’s probably best to stay somewhere else for a while.
You can call a professional cleaning service and pay thousands of dollars or you can try to do it yourself.
- Wear protective clothing to keep shards off your skin and a mask to protect your face.
- Dispose of the mattress first. This is the source of all the trouble. You should wrap it up in plastic to avoid shards falling all around while you’re carrying it out.
- Bag up your stuff – put clothes in one bag, toys in another, etc. There are a lot of things that you won’t be able to get back to a safe state. Just throw those into the trash.
- Some clothes might be salvageable but you’ll have to wash/dry them many times before they become fiberglass-free.
- Use a wet mop and wet cloths to pick up the glass off any surfaces that aren’t upholstered or carpeted.
- Vacuum the entire home thoroughly, with the windows open. Your vacuum should have a HEPA filter.
- When dust particles settle, mop again and vacuum again. Repeat the process many times. It’s probably easier to get rid of carpets or take them to professional cleaners and just mop up the entire house.
FAQs
They do. Nectar didn’t take any action to remove fiberglass from its mattresses. We expected they would try to get rid of it after it’s already been years since people have been complaining about fiberglass leaks, but they aren’t changing anything.
Like all mattresses made of foam, Nectar mattresses off-gas chemicals that you end up breathing in. However, they are CertiPUR-certified, which among other things, means that these mattresses are low in emissions of VOCs (Volatile Organic Compounds) – so, as far as that goes, they aren’t too toxic. A much bigger problem is their choice of flame retardant, which might never leak if you’re lucky; but if you aren’t and it does leak, we can say it’s quite dangerous. If you don’t get rid of such a mattress instantly, your problems will only keep growing.
Not at the moment. Nectar made false claims about their mattresses being made in the US and the same false claims were repeated by Dreamcloud (both companies are owned by the same person). There might be a class-action lawsuit against Nectar due to fiberglass injury in the future.
Yes. On April 21, 2022, the US Consumer Product Safety Commission issued a recall on some of the Nectar Premier mattresses. Only King size mattresses made on 9/24/2021 and Queen-size mattresses made on 9/27/2021 are being recalled because they don’t meet the mandatory federal flammability standard for mattresses. You can find the manufacture date on the white tag of your mattress.
Nectar mattresses are made of polyurethane foam, and if it’s one of the cooling models, it’s infused with “phase change material”, also known as the cooling gel. The cover is made of polyethylene and right between the mattress pad and the cover is a layer of fiberglass. Overall, we’re talking about the cheapest and least durable type of foam, the most common plastic material for cover, and the cheapest and most dangerous flame retardant – fiberglass.
Conclusion
The Nectar memory foam mattress has fiberglass under the mattress cover. If a company claims that you shouldn’t remove the cover, you can conclude that the mattress contains fiberglass even if the website says nothing about this material. Fiberglass is a cheap fire retardant that is used in many mattresses and if this layer gets damaged, it can leak out of the mattress, causing damage of thousands of dollars and giving you skin and respiratory issues. There is a way to clean it up, but it’s either extremely difficult or extremely expensive. If you really need to buy a cheap mattress, do your best to get one without fiberglass – it can save you a lot of trouble in the long run.
Next step: Read our Nectar vs. Casper vs. Purple mattress comparison. If you’re considering buying a Nectar mattress then it’s important to see how the brand stacks up to the competition. We go over the pros and cons of each brand so you can make your own decision.
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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