GreenGuard Certified Ottoman

February 13, 2018, by Debra Lynn Dadd

Question from Jenna

Hi Debra,

I just came across your website and cannot believe I didn't find it sooner. I am so passionate about nontoxic living. I first read The Complete Organic Pregnancy about a year ago when I found I was pregnant with my first. It changed my life and I began switching out all of my products, and before you know it, I started reading up on nontoxic living and greenguard certified products daily.

I am failing to find a greenguard certified ottoman coffee table, or at least a "nontoxic" one. My daughter will be crawling soon, so having a soft ottoman is key. The only one I have found was through pottery barn. Any other suggestions? Also, is there a difference between nontoxic and greenguard certified? I try to go as natural as possible, I was just wondering how the two compare.

THANK YOU!

Debra's Answer

First I want to answer your question about Greenguard and nontoxic, and then I will address finding your ottoman coffee table.

There is no legal definition of nontoxic. Make a long story short, there is a definition of “toxic” and if the product isn’t toxic then it can be labeled nontoxic. But there is no official list of toxic chemicals, so at the moment, a nontoxic label means nothing.

MY definition of nontoxic is no toxic substances or materials are used to make the product. And I DO have a list of toxic chemicals I’ve complied over the years that I am looking for when I choose products [I’m working on putting that list together for publication.]

To establish that a product is free from toxics, you look at each material. If all the materials are nontoxic, the product is nontoxic.

GREENGUARD does something different. They have a list of chemicals they test for. If the product tests show that the list of chemicals are not found in the air emissions of the product, then it is GREENGUARD certified.

The problem with this is that GREENGUARD is certifying toxic products such as crib mattresses with PVC covers because the emissions from PVC are not on their list of chemicals to test for. For this reason, I personally do not consider GREENGUARD to be a “nontoxic” certification.

Now, about your ottoman coffee table. This is tricky because it is both a piece of wood furniture and a piece of upholstered furniture.

For wood furniture you need to look at the type of wood used and the type of finish. You want solid wood and a nontoxic finish.

For upholstered furniture you need to look for natural fiber fabric, no fabric finish, no fire retardants and no polyurethane foam.

Generally you don’t get all this information in the product description, so you need to call the manufacturer.

I can make those calls for you as a paid consultant but you can also make those calls.

I found the above ottoman coffee table on amazon by searching the internet for “ottoman coffee table linen.” It’s linen and hardwood, but that’s all the information they give. So that’s all I know without making phone calls.

You could also have one custom made to your specifications.

Just a heads up: I searched for “nontoxic ottoman coffee table” and got things like polypropylene fabric that would still have polyurethane foam.

If it were me, I would get an unfinished wood coffee table and have a pillow made to fit on top and have it custom upholstered. Then I could control exactly what it’s made from.