CertiPUR (or CertiPUR-US) looks at the foam part of a mattress. These days, almost all mattresses are made with CertiPUR certified foam—even conventional mattresses. CertiPUR foams are free from: Certain flame retardants like PBDEs, TDCPP or TCEP (”Tris”) Certain heavy metals like mercury and lead Formaldehyde Certain phthalates Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and other ozone depleters And it also means the foam is \\"low VOC\\" at less than 0.5 parts per million We certainly don't want any of those things in our bed, so on one hand, you could say that a Certi-PUR certified mattress is better than nothing... But on the other hand, we recommend taking the CertiPUR certification with a grain of salt. The conventional mattress industry commonly uses this label to lead consumers to think their mattresses are completely non-toxic, which is not really the case. Here are some things to keep in mind about CertiPUR: It bans certain chemical flame retardants (but not all) It only bans eight phthalates (the ones regulated by the Consumer Product Safety Commission), but not all It does not indicate that the foam is made from natural or organic materials (it's still made from polyurethane) This certification only certifies the foam, nothing about the rest of the mattress. So just because a mattress is made with CertiPUR foam does not mean it's non-toxic. For example, even though the foam itself may be free from formaldehyde, that says absolutely nothing about the formaldehyde in the glues and adhesives used to hold the mattress together. In fact, CertiPUR's Terms of Use document actually says that brands using CertiPUR foam are not allowed to make various claims about human or environmental safety: (During our research, we definitely found more than one mattress brand breaking this rule!) Just remember that whenever you see a CertiPUR certification, it means the mattress is NOT natural and/or organic. If you do choose a mattress that uses CertiPUR foam, we recommend looking for additional certifications as well, and not relying solely on that one.