At a glance
| Chemical family | Volatile organic compound — the simplest ketone (propan-2-one / 2-propanone) |
| CAS number | 67-64-1 |
| Classification | Not evaluated by IARC for carcinogenicity (no monograph exists). US EPA separately found available data inadequate to assess human carcinogenic potential. Not on California Proposition 65. |
| Where you encounter it | New polyurethane and memory-foam off-gassing; nail polish remover; paint thinners; cleaning products; and endogenously — your own body produces it as a metabolic byproduct |
| Sleep micro-environment relevance | One of the four compounds making up ~81–95% of a new memory-foam mattress's total VOC output — and among the fastest to fade (emission half-life ~4–12 hours) |
| Activated carbon capture | Modest — small and highly volatile; not a primary capture target, and largely gone within days regardless of filtration |
Regulatory & certification status
Where Acetone stands across the major regulatory systems and the certifications a bedroom product might carry. Each row links to the governing instrument; where a jurisdiction has no specific measure, that is stated plainly rather than left blank.
| European Union | Acetone has a harmonised CLP classification (Annex VI to Regulation (EC) No 1272/2008, Index 606-001-00-8): Flam. Liq. 2 (H225), Eye Irrit. 2 (H319) and STOT SE 3 (H336, may cause drowsiness or dizziness). No carcinogenicity, mutagenicity, or reproductive-toxicity hazard class is assigned. It is a registered substance under REACH but is not on the SVHC Candidate List, the Authorisation List (Annex XIV) or the Restriction List (Annex XVII), and is not covered by the EU POPs Regulation. Regulatory — ECHA |
| United States | Acetone is on the TSCA Inventory. Its 2003 EPA IRIS toxicological review states that no animal carcinogenicity studies are available and that the data are inadequate for a quantitative assessment of human carcinogenic potential. ATSDR's 2022 Toxicological Profile states explicitly that acetone "has not been evaluated by the Department of Health and Human Services or the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) with regard to its carcinogenicity." Acetone is not listed on California Proposition 65 (confirmed absent from the current OEHHA list) for any endpoint. Regulatory — OEHHA · US EPA IRIS · ATSDR |
| Canada | A final screening assessment of acetone (CAS 67-64-1) under section 74 of CEPA 1999 concluded that acetone does not meet any of the criteria set out in section 64 — i.e. it is not "toxic" under CEPA — and the government took no further action. Acetone is therefore not on Schedule 1 (List of Toxic Substances). It is a substance on the Domestic Substances List. Regulatory — Government of Canada |
| Australia | Acetone (2-propanone) is on the AICIS Inventory and was assessed under the NICNAS IMAP framework (Human Health Tier II). The assessment recommends a hazard classification of Eye Irrit. 2 (H319, causes serious eye irritation) and otherwise advises that exposure be controlled through the standard hierarchy of controls; it does not classify acetone as acutely toxic or carcinogenic. Regulatory — AICIS |
| United Kingdom | Under GB CLP, acetone carries a GB Mandatory Classification (GB MCL) inherited from the EU Annex VI position retained at 31 Dec 2020: Flam. Liq. 2, Eye Irrit. 2 and STOT SE 3. It is not on the UK REACH SVHC candidate list and is not subject to a UK REACH restriction or authorisation requirement. Regulatory — HSE |
| International / occupational | No global treaty or international carcinogen determination applies. Acetone has not been evaluated by IARC — there is no monograph, and it is not assigned to any carcinogen group (this is distinct from a Group 3 "inadequate evidence" finding; it has simply never gone through the process). It is not listed under the Stockholm Convention (POPs) or the Minamata Convention (mercury). Occupationally, the current US OSHA Permissible Exposure Limit is 1,000 ppm (8-hour TWA); NIOSH's more conservative Recommended Exposure Limit is 250 ppm. Typical residential indoor-air acetone concentrations are orders of magnitude below either threshold. Regulatory — IARC · NIOSH |
| Certifications | CertiPUR-US and GREENGUARD/GREENGUARD Gold are low-VOC emissions programs (a TVOC cap plus substance-specific limits for a defined analyte list). Acetone is not among the named target analytes in either program: it does not appear in the CertiPUR-US technical guidelines' VOC list, nor in the CDPH "Section 01350" Standard Method v1.2 table that GREENGUARD Gold applies. Acetone would therefore be captured only generically, under the overall TVOC limit, rather than by a named acetone-specific threshold. These programs target other compounds by name (e.g. formaldehyde, toluene). Industry — CertiPUR-US · CDPH/EHLB Standard Method |
| The 72-hour test window | Readily detected. Acetone is a highly volatile VOC (boiling point ~56°C, very high vapour pressure), so it off-gasses quickly and a short ~72-hour emissions chamber test captures it well, though its volatility also means levels fade fast after manufacture. Inferred — from the compound's volatility/emission profile versus the VOC focus of short chamber tests |
What it is
Acetone — CAS 67-64-1, also known as propan-2-one or 2-propanone — is a small organic molecule and the simplest ketone. It is a clear, colorless liquid with very high vapor pressure (it evaporates rapidly at room temperature) and a sharp, faintly sweet, mint-like odor. It is one of the most-studied industrial solvents in existence, used in everything from nail polish remover to paint thinners to plastics manufacturing.
Acetone is also produced endogenously in the human body during normal fat metabolism — every healthy person exhales small amounts of it constantly, and levels rise measurably during fasting, low-carbohydrate diets, and in uncontrolled diabetes. Regulatory — ATSDR 2022, Toxicological Profile for Acetone That biology matters for calibration: unlike most Atlas compounds, you cannot avoid acetone even in principle. Your own metabolism is a baseline source.
On hazard, the standout fact is what has not happened: acetone has never been evaluated by IARC for carcinogenicity — there is no IARC monograph on it at all. The 2022 ATSDR toxicological profile states this directly, and the EPA's own 2003 IRIS review separately concluded that the available toxicology data are inadequate to make any quantitative assessment of human carcinogenic potential, positive or negative. Regulatory — ATSDR 2022; US EPA IRIS 2003 That is a genuinely different, and more reassuring, position than compounds like isopropanol or limonene that carry an IARC Group 3 ("evaluated, inadequate evidence") finding — acetone has simply never triggered the kind of concern that puts a chemical up for review in the first place.
How it relates to the bedroom
One of the four dominant new-foam VOCs
A 2022 study measuring VOC emissions from memory-foam mattresses found that just four compounds — 2-propanol (isopropanol), acetone, chloromethane, and toluene — together accounted for roughly 81% to 95% of the total VOC output from the two mattresses tested over their first year. Peer-reviewed — Beckett et al. 2022, Chemosphere, PMID 35588879 Acetone is one of those four. If you have ever caught a faint, sweetish solvent note when unwrapping a new mattress, acetone is part of that first-day smell.
It fades fast
The same study modeled how each compound's airborne concentration decayed over time. Acetone — like isopropanol — peaked on day one and decayed with an emission half-life of roughly 4 to 12 hours, among the fastest-fading of the four dominant VOCs. Peer-reviewed — Beckett 2022 Chloromethane and toluene, by contrast, lingered for weeks (half-lives near 24 days). So acetone's contribution to the new-foam smell is essentially a first-day-or-two phenomenon — airing a new mattress clears most of it quickly.
It's also everywhere else in your life already
Because acetone is the primary ingredient in nail polish remover and a common solvent in paint thinners, adhesives, and household cleaning products, your bedroom air likely already contains some acetone from ordinary household use — often at levels comparable to or higher than a mattress contributes after its first week. Regulatory — ATSDR 2022 Layer onto that the fact that your own exhaled breath contains acetone constantly, and a new mattress's temporary contribution is a small addition to a compound you were never going to eliminate from your environment.
What the research says
The levels are low
The memory-foam study's central finding applies directly here: the measured and modeled airborne concentrations of the individual VOCs and total VOCs, acetone included, were below available health-based benchmarks, and the authors concluded the tested mattresses were unlikely to pose a health risk to consumers. Peer-reviewed — Beckett 2022 For context on scale, the current US OSHA occupational exposure limit for acetone is 1,000 ppm over an 8-hour workday, and NIOSH's more protective recommended limit is 250 ppm — both many orders of magnitude above anything a bedroom reaches from foam off-gassing or household products combined. Regulatory — NIOSH IDLH documentation
The known health effects require much higher exposures
ATSDR's toxicological profile catalogues acetone's documented effects — mainly neurological (headache, dizziness, dulled reflexes) and respiratory/eye irritation — but these appear at occupational-level concentrations in the hundreds to thousands of ppm, not the trace levels found in home air. Regulatory — ATSDR 2022 No epidemiological studies have identified adverse effects at typical ambient or residential concentrations.
Honest scope
We include acetone in the Atlas not because it is a hazard but because it is loud — a defining, measurable component of new-foam off-gassing that people notice and ask about. Naming it accurately, and saying plainly that it is one of the more thoroughly reassuring entries in this database, is part of being a trustworthy guide to the sleep environment. Inferred — individual bedroom concentration varies with ventilation and household product use
What helps / what does NOT help
What helps: Honestly, not much is needed. Airing a new mattress for a day or two before use — the same general-purpose advice that applies to any new-foam product — will clear the acetone portion of the smell along with the other fast-fading VOCs, simply because ventilation speeds up what a 4-to-12-hour half-life is already doing on its own.
What does NOT help — and isn't necessary:
- Specialized filtration aimed at acetone. It is gone within days regardless; filtration effort is far better spent on the compounds in this Atlas that persist for weeks or carry an actual hazard classification.
- Avoiding a mattress because it "off-gasses acetone." Given that your own body produces acetone continuously and it's the main ingredient in a product likely already in your bathroom cabinet, treating this specific VOC as a reason for concern is disproportionate to the evidence.
- Waiting for an IARC classification to feel reassured. Acetone has gone unclassified for decades not because of a data gap that needs closing, but because nothing about its extensive use and study history has raised the kind of signal that prompts a review.
Open research questions
- The relative contribution of mattress off-gassing versus household products (nail care, cleaning, painting) to total bedroom acetone over time. Speculation
The Embr Exposure Ledger: Acetone
One chemical, several public questions, answered from independent datasets and joined here — the environment it shows up in, the body burden it carries, how it is regulated, and what actually reduces it.
Detection and body-burden figures are occurrence data, not a personal measurement or a health diagnosis. Part of the Embr Exposure Ledger — an open, cross-dataset chemical join (download the data), reusable with attribution.
Citations
- Beckett EM, et al. (2022). Evaluation of volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions from memory foam mattresses and potential implications for consumer health risk. Chemosphere. PMID 35588879 Peer-reviewed
- ATSDR (2022). Toxicological Profile for Acetone — Chapter 1, Relevance to Public Health. States acetone "has not been evaluated by the Department of Health and Human Services or the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) with regard to its carcinogenicity." ATSDR ToxProfile Regulatory
- US EPA IRIS (2003). Toxicological Review of Acetone (CASRN 67-64-1) — no animal carcinogenicity studies located; data judged inadequate for quantitative human carcinogenic-potential assessment. EPA IRIS Regulatory
- NIOSH. Acetone — Immediately Dangerous to Life or Health (IDLH) documentation; current OSHA PEL 1,000 ppm TWA; NIOSH REL 250 ppm TWA. NIOSH IDLH Regulatory
- OEHHA. The Proposition 65 List — acetone (CAS 67-64-1) confirmed absent. OEHHA Regulatory
- Government of Canada. Final screening assessment for acetone (CAS 67-64-1) under CEPA 1999 — does not meet section 64 criteria; no further action. Government of Canada Regulatory
Frequently asked questions
Is acetone dangerous in a new mattress?
At the levels a bedroom reaches, no. Acetone is one of four compounds — with 2-propanol, chloromethane, and toluene — that together make up the large majority of a new memory-foam mattress's total VOC output in the first year. But it is also one of the fastest to fade, and a 2022 study found the measured concentrations were below health-based benchmarks. Acetone has never even been evaluated by IARC for carcinogenicity — there isn't enough data to classify it either way, which is different from being flagged a concern.
Why hasn't IARC classified acetone?
IARC evaluates chemicals when there is a reason to suspect cancer risk worth investigating, and acetone has never been selected for a monograph. The ATSDR's 2022 toxicological profile states plainly that acetone has not been evaluated by IARC or the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for carcinogenicity, and the EPA separately found the available data inadequate to assess human carcinogenic potential at all. This isn't a loophole — it reflects decades of acetone being one of the most-studied, best-understood solvents in existence, without the kind of signal that triggers a carcinogenicity review.
How long does acetone from a new mattress last?
Not long. The 2022 memory-foam study measured acetone's emission half-life at roughly 4 to 12 hours — it peaks on day one and is largely gone within a couple of days. That makes it one of the two fastest-fading of the four dominant new-foam VOCs (alongside isopropanol), in contrast to chloromethane and toluene, which linger for weeks.
Where else does acetone come from?
Almost everywhere. Acetone is naturally produced by your own body as a byproduct of normal metabolism — every person exhales trace amounts constantly, and levels rise with fasting, low-carb diets, or diabetes. It's also the main ingredient in nail polish remover, and it's common in paint thinners, cleaning products, and many industrial solvents. A new mattress's contribution is a small, temporary addition to a compound your body already makes and your bathroom cabinet likely already contains.
Related compounds
Embr is a sleep environment company researching and addressing the chemistry of the bedroom. Research and product development in progress.
Last reviewed 2026-07-07. If you find a factual error, contact us.