# Flame Retardants in Baby Products: Where They Hide and What They Do > California's TB117-2013 standard has two compliance paths — one uses chemical flame retardants, one doesn't. TDCIPP and TPHP hide in foam across bouncers, play mats, and nursing pillows. Here's how each works and what to look for. - Type: explainer - Published: 2026-07-29 - Updated: 2026-07-29 - Author: Lucas Gruber - Canonical: https://nontoxicnook.com/articles/flame-retardants-baby-products-where-they-hide Prices are deliberately omitted from this mirror — they go stale. Current prices, stock, and where to buy live on the product pages linked below. --- ## The Regulation With Two Very Different Answers California's Technical Bulletin 117 was updated in 2013, and the revision changed something fundamental: it created two different paths to compliance. Under the original 1975 standard, foam used in upholstered furniture and bedding had to meet a flammability test designed around an open flame — a threshold that all but required adding chemical flame retardants to polyurethane foam. The practical result: nearly everything with foam padding contained added FR chemicals. Baby bouncers, nursing pillows, play mats, and crib mattresses were all affected. TB117-2013 is still the de facto national standard — most states defer to California's rules on upholstered products. But the 2013 revision created a second compliance path: a "smolder resistance" test that a product can pass with a snug-fitting cover made of a natural fiber barrier — wool, cotton — without any chemical FR treatment at all. > **What 'meets TB117-2013' actually means** > > This label tells you the product passed the flammability test. It says nothing about how — chemical FR treatment or design-based compliance with a natural fiber barrier. Brands using the chemical-free path will usually say so explicitly. Brands that don't disclose are often using chemicals. ## Where the Chemicals Show Up The foam in baby products is the primary FR reservoir. Flexible polyurethane foam — used because it's lightweight, cheap, and moldable — is the standard core material in: * **Infant bouncers and rockers** — seat padding and foam inserts * **Lounger pillows** — foam-core infant loungers * **Play mats and activity gyms** — foam underlayers * **Nursing pillows** — C-shaped foam-core pillows * **Crib and bassinet mattresses** — inner batting and foam cores * **Car seat padding** — regulated separately under FMVSS 302, but FR chemicals remain common in the padding foam Not every product in these categories uses FR chemicals — some brands have adopted design-based compliance or eliminated polyurethane foam entirely. But without an explicit disclosure, foam padding in any of these products may contain them. ## TDCIPP: The One That Was Already Banned Once TDCIPP — tris(1,3-dichloroisopropyl) phosphate, commonly called "chlorinated tris" — replaced TRIS (tris(2,3-dibromopropyl) phosphate) after the Consumer Product Safety Commission banned TRIS from children's pajamas in 1977. That substitution was made quickly, without long-term safety assessment. TDCIPP is a chlorinated organophosphate. It works by disrupting combustion chemistry in foam and does not chemically bond to the foam matrix — which means it migrates out over time, accumulating in house dust, settling on surfaces, and depositing on the hands of anyone in contact with treated products. California added TDCIPP to its Proposition 65 list as a chemical known to cause cancer. In 2021, the National Toxicology Program added it to the Report on Carcinogens as "reasonably anticipated to be a human carcinogen," based on animal studies showing liver and brain tumors at sustained exposures and evidence of mutagenic metabolites in bacterial assays. For baby products specifically, TDCIPP's former prevalence in foam padding reflected the pre-2013 regulatory environment — before the clean-path option existed. Its persistence as a concern reflects that, once in foam, it doesn't stay there. ## TPHP: The Endocrine-Disrupting Substitute As awareness of TDCIPP's carcinogenicity grew, some manufacturers shifted to TPHP — triphenyl phosphate, an organophosphate FR also used as a plasticizer. It appears in many of the same baby product foam categories. TPHP is a documented endocrine disruptor. Research published in peer-reviewed toxicology journals has shown it interferes with thyroid hormone signaling and can affect androgen and estrogen pathways through nuclear receptor binding and effects on hormone biosynthesis. Thyroid hormones are essential for fetal and infant brain development — disruption during early life carries developmental risks that adult exposure does not. TPHP's primary metabolite is DPHP (diphenyl phosphate), which is detectable in urine. Studies measuring DPHP in children have found concentrations that correlate with the presence of TPHP in household products and dust — a pattern consistent with what researchers see for other non-bound FR chemicals. ## How Infants Are Actually Exposed Babies don't encounter flame retardants the way adults do. Infants spend most of their waking time in direct contact with foam-padded products and on floors where FR-containing dust concentrates. They mouth their hands at rates that older children and adults don't. Research from Duke University's Nicholas School of the Environment — documented most extensively through the TESIE study (Toddlers' Exposure to SVOCs in Indoor Environments) — has tracked organophosphate flame retardant exposure in children ages three to six, comparing concentrations in house dust, on children's hands, and in paired urine samples. The data shows that hand-to-mouth contact and house dust ingestion are the dominant exposure pathways for these chemicals in young children, and that FR levels in the home environment predict levels in children's bodies. The practical implication: a foam play mat used daily on a living room floor, or a nursing pillow stored within a baby's reach, contributes to the FR load in that room's dust. That dust moves through the most direct route available — a toddler's hands to their mouth. ## Certifications That Actually Signal FR-Free **GOTS Certified** (Global Organic Textile Standard): The standard explicitly prohibits chemical flame retardants at every production stage. A GOTS-certified mattress cover or insert means no FR treatment was applied. **MADE SAFE**: A product-level non-toxic certification that screens for harmful FR chemicals including TDCIPP and TPHP. Products carrying this seal have been third-party verified to exclude them. **GREENGUARD Gold**: Limits chemical emissions from products, including FR off-gassing. Useful for reducing exposure from volatile FRs, but primarily about what a product emits rather than what it contains — a product can hold this certification and still contain FR chemicals at lower-emission formulations. **"Meets TB117-2013"**: Compliance only. The label means the product passed the flammability test. It says nothing about which compliance path was used to get there. ## What to Look For When Buying The clearest signal is a direct brand disclosure: "no added flame retardants," "flame-retardant-free," or "meets TB117-2013 without the use of chemical flame retardants." Brands that use the design-compliance path usually name it — it's a genuine selling point and most know it. Natural fill materials are a secondary signal: wool batting (which provides inherent smolder resistance), solid natural latex, and organic cotton are less likely to carry FR treatment than polyurethane foam cores. They're not a guarantee on their own — it depends on the cover and batting treatment — but they narrow the field considerably. When in doubt, ask the brand directly which TB117-2013 compliance path the product uses. Any brand that's made the cleaner choice can answer that in one sentence. For [crib mattresses](/articles/best-non-toxic-crib-mattresses-2026), where infants log the most cumulative hours, the exposure-pathway research makes material transparency especially consequential. Our [FR-free nursery product guide](/articles/7-foam-free-flame-retardant-free-nursery-products-2026) covers bouncers, play mats, and nursing pillows with picks that disclose their compliance method clearly. For the related question of baby pajamas — which follow a separate federal standard — see our [guide to flame-retardant-free baby pajamas](/articles/non-toxic-baby-pajamas-without-flame-retardants-2026). For a deeper look at what certifications mean in the crib mattress context specifically, [What's in Your Baby's Crib Mattress?](/articles/crib-mattress-flame-retardants-pfas-guide) covers that ground in full. **Sources:** 1. [California OEHHA — Proposition 65 chemicals list (TDCIPP)](https://oehha.ca.gov/proposition-65/chemicals) 2. [National Toxicology Program — 15th Report on Carcinogens (2021)](https://ntp.niehs.nih.gov/go/roc15) 3. [EPA — Risk Evaluation for TDCIPP under TSCA](https://www.epa.gov/assessing-and-managing-chemicals-under-tsca/risk-evaluation-tris-1-3-dichloroisopropyl-phosphate) 4. [Phillips AL et al. "Children's residential exposure to organophosphate ester flame retardants and plasticizers: Investigating exposure pathways in the TESIE study." Environment International, 2018. DOI: 10.1016/j.envint.2018.04.013](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29689464/) 5. [Hammel SC et al. "Comparing the Use of Silicone Wristbands, Hand Wipes, And Dust to Evaluate Children's Exposure to Flame Retardants and Plasticizers." Environmental Science & Technology, 2020. DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.9b07909](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32122123/) 6. [Hammel SC et al. "Associations between flame retardant applications in furniture foam, house dust levels, and residents' serum levels." Environment International, 2017. PMID: 28750223](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28750223/) --- Nontoxic Nook is an independent guide: every listed product cleared the published criteria at https://nontoxicnook.com/our-promise. This mirror links only to our own pages; affiliate disclosure: https://nontoxicnook.com/affiliate-disclosure.