(Opinion) What mattress companies are doing should be criminal

[Yarco]

Bit of a rant here.

I just bought a new mattress and it got delivered on the weekend. The smell coming off of this thing is incredibly strong. It's like "new car smell" x10.

I decided to do some research to see if it's harmful, because it was extremely chemically and didn't seem like it could be good to inhale. Plus my wife is pregnant and worried what it could be doing to our unborn child.

Turns out mattresses will off-gas VOCs (volatile organic compounds) including stuff like fire-retardant substances, formaldehyde, benzene, and others for 2 weeks or more. 

Information on VOCs in mattresses is incredibly inconsistent. Some sources say it can irritate your eyes, nose and throat in the short term. Others say it can cause long-term organ damage and cancer. Others say that it's completely natural and won't cause any negative health impacts!

WebMD says it's pretty bad: https://www.webmd.com/sleep-disorders/news/20190710/is-your-mattress-releasing-toxins-while-you-sleep

Mattress Advisor and other websites with an obvious mattress-selling bias say it's fine: https://www.mattressadvisor.com/mattress-off-gassing-dangerous/

This isn't some cheap low-quality mattress that I got either. It's basically the top-of-the-line, #1 quality mattress in the entire store. 

First night I slept on this mattress, I woke up with a horrible headache in the middle of the night and had to go sleep on a couch. In the morning I needed to shower off the chemically-smell that was still all over my skin, clothes, and hair.

The worst part is that I was given no mention or warning that this would happen. In store there was no mention or warnings. Apparently non-toxic/organic mattresses exist, but I didn't see a single one in the 4 rows of mattresses at the store that I went to. The salesperson didn't mention anything about smells or chemicals. Even the packaging that the mattress came in had absolutely no warnings or labels on it.

For me this basically seems like the equivalent of selling cigarettes with no warning, it's so bad. At least when you buy stuff like paint that also releases chemicals and makes your house smell, it's clearly labelled as toxic/poisonous, flammable, etc. But with mattresses I guess that it's just assumed that this is the way it is and there's no other option.

3 days later, after having a fan running and the window wide open in my bedroom all day, this thing still stinks up the entire room. I am seriously considering returning this mattress and looking into non-toxic alternatives. But my wife sees absolutely nothing wrong with it. She isn't suffering the headaches or any bad effects. And she says stuff like my old mattress probably did this and I just don't remember, it can't be that dangerous and I'm over-reacting, etc. (She also says I'm over-reacting and being unreasonable when I brought up not letting our kid chew on plastic toys and ingest phthalates.)

Anyway I don't care about this enough to make it my life purpose and try to pass legislation to make mattress companies acknowledge that their products are releasing toxic chemicals directly against your face and skin while you sleep. But hopefully someone will at some point.

Mattress companies could fix this pretty easily by letting mattresses off-gas in a warehouse for a month or two before selling them, instead of shipping straight to the consumer. But of course that would take time, money, and effort and eat into profits. So you get a nice free dose of volatile chemicals with every purchase.

Edited March 31, 2021 by Yarco

[integral]

I would be equally frustrated by that mattress, if possible return it and go for a non-toxic eco-friendly mattresses. Your all ready doing research on this, so keep going, there are some good companies out there that know about this problem. 

The wife seems like the go with the flow agreeable type, a good one, but terrible at making these kind of decisions. You know whats best. 

[Average Investor]

I actually had a similar experience with a pillow recently. I have a meditation set up that costs about $120 just to have some natural material. I would imagine a bed would be very expensive to produce without all of the bs. 

You could consider a full plastic casing for the mattress, then have some sheets that are organic cotton. That at the least would help contain a lot of the stuff that is bothering you. 

Since you seem to be looking into toxins quite a bit the book The Toxin Solution would be a great read for you. 

[flowboy]

Also, mattresses are kind of a marketing scam, because people who try sleeping on the floor, generally accustom to it in 2 weeks, and then sleep better than before and find it's better for their back.

[Leo Gura]

You can buy a waterproof mattress cover at Walmart that seals up the entire mattress from all sides. It's a good investment regardless. Keeps your mattress clean and keeps the mites and bedbugs locked inside.

Wait till you find out about the mites