› Coir Matting
As much as coir matting is being heralded by many as the floor covering of the future, there are concerns over the safety aspect of having your entire home floored with dried organic matter. Many people over the centuries have observed the tendency of dried wood or leaves to burn very easily, and this is the same for the dried husk of the coconut palm, from which coir matting is made. This means that anybody with smokers in the house is strongly advised not to invest in coir matting for the health and safety risk it poses.
There are some developments afoot though. Much like how chemical treatments on modern soft furnishings and upholstery render them fireproof, the same options may soon be available for coir matting. This of course means that the product will not be quite as environmentally friendly as it was previously as the chemicals take some serious industrial processing, eating up precious natural resources and throwing out pollutants. Whether this bothers you more than the inherent safety risks of living in a tinder box is up to you.
Should you choose to only use traditionally made coir matting, without the extra fireproofing work done, then there are various precautions you should take. Mainly you need to have the capability in your home of containing a blaze at source. This means having a few empty metal dustbins dotted around the house with a shovel next to it. This way if a section goes up then it can be quickly shovelled in to the bin to burn away without igniting the rest of the house.