Sit down on a foam cushion or lay-down on a foam mattress & you are releasing countless invisible PBDE partials. 

Many chemicals used in conventional mattress manufacturing today have proven negative effects on health. Flame retardants such as PBDE’s (polybrominated diphenyl ethers in use until 2004), boric acid and antimony are highly toxic. Potent insecticides are often sprayed on mattress materials. If you hear that a mattress has been “treated for dust mites”, that means the materials have been sprayed or were soaked in an insecticide solution.

Other common mattress additives such as formaldehyde, TDI (toluene di-isocyanate), styrene, butadiene, and other petroleum derivatives may have worrisome long-term effects, particularly on the developing brains of children.

PBDE's can create potentially more toxic substances when they burn, including a form of dioxin, a deadly carcinogen.

According to “Respiratory Toxicity of Mattress Emissions in Mice” (Archives of Environmental Health, January 2000), synthetic mattresses emit a variety of toxic chemicals, including styrene, isopropylbenzene, nitrobenzene, 1-methyl-2-ethylbenzene, 1,3-dichlorobenzene and others. The latest concern about chemicals in synthetic mattresses are the fire retardants PBDEs. PBDEs belong to a group of brominated flame retardants. Because PBDEs can account for up 30 percent of the foam’s weight, and they are not bound to the material, much of it can escape from foam mattresses as household dust. The long-term effect of exposure to PBDEs is still unknown. What about Alzheimer's? How many millions of people will this have affected & how will they be affected? 

Decabromodiphenyl oxide, DECA for short, is also widely used in synthetic mattresses & paint as flame retardant. Interestingly enough, www.ScoreCard.org ranks
Arkansas  #2 State in the Union with total environmental release for Deca. (one of the last PBDE's not yet banned in all states)

 2002 ARKANSAS Rankings: Major Chemical Releases or Waste Generation.

Catie Couric CBS News explains more about DECA. (click here)