Is Your Mattress Making You Sick?
Chemicals Could Affect Health
POSTED: 3:12 p.m. EST November 18, 2002
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. -- There are warnings every day about how we live in a toxic world of factories, pollution and contaminated water.
But there is another danger that is much closer to home. In fact, it's right under your nose.
Your mattress could be making you sick.
Joan McCarthy says she is exhausted and hasn't slept in weeks. She says she has gone through four name-brand mattresses in six weeks because every one of them had a horrible odor.
"More like bug spray that you would spray around for ants. That kind of
smell," McCarthy said.
McCarthy is not alone. Hundreds of mattress complaints have been flooding the Consumer Product Safety Commission. The consumers writing in complain of headaches, dizziness, nausea, eye irritation, burning throats, difficulty breathing and pneumonia -- symptoms that people say developed after buying a brand-name mattress.
More than 30,000 mattresses have been recalled since 2001 because of what the industry called "a bad batch" of chemicals in the foam supplied by one foam company to the majority of mattress manufacturers in the United States, according to the CPSC.
Foamex International Inc. of Linwood, Pa., a major foam supplier to mattress manufacturers, said late last year that their supply became contaminated with a chemical known as trichloroanisole, or TCA. While Foamex supported the mattress recall, the company said TCA posed no known health risk.
There are no industry or government standards regarding the chemicals that companies pump into mattresses, WPBF-TV in West Palm Beach reported. The only government requirement is that mattresses must be flame-retardant, which means many mattresses are packed with irritating chemicals like pesticides and formaldehyde.
"Formaldehyde, unless they've changed it recently, is the major
component in embalming fluid," said allergist Dr. Dan Tucker. "It kills things. It kills bacteria fungi -- and enough of it kills people."
Tucker said researchers don't know how chemicals in mattresses could affect humans. But studies have shown the body stores many of the chemicals found in mattresses in fatty tissue, including the brain.
"We don't honestly know what the long-term effects (of the chemicals) are," Tucker said. "And (there is) a considerable suspicion that they do contribute to the chronic brain disorders as people get older. The less we are exposed to this, the better."
Tucker said he is disturbed with new research out of England that explores whether these mattress chemicals could have a link to Sudden
Infant Death Syndrome.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission said it looked into countless complaints about potential toxins in mattresses and saw "no health risk that would prompt a recall." The federal government refused to say whether they did any lab testing to back up the claim.
Meanwhile, few options exist. There are organic mattresses made with 100 percent cotton, which could be heavily processed. Lambs' wool and horsehair products also are on the market.
The bottom line: If you buy a mattress and it has a strange smell that lasts for weeks, call the retailer and request an exchange.
More Information:
Manufacturers Other Resources
Joan McCarthy says she is exhausted and hasn't slept in weeks. She says she has gone through four name-brand mattresses in six weeks because every one of them had a horrible odor.
"More like bug spray that you would spray around for ants. That kind of
smell," McCarthy said.
McCarthy is not alone. Hundreds of mattress complaints have been flooding the Consumer Product Safety Commission. The consumers writing in complain of headaches, dizziness, nausea, eye irritation, burning throats, difficulty breathing and pneumonia -- symptoms that people say developed after buying a brand-name mattress.
More than 30,000 mattresses have been recalled since 2001 because of what the industry called "a bad batch" of chemicals in the foam supplied by one foam company to the majority of mattress manufacturers in the United States, according to the CPSC.
Foamex International Inc. of Linwood, Pa., a major foam supplier to mattress manufacturers, said late last year that their supply became contaminated with a chemical known as trichloroanisole, or TCA. While Foamex supported the mattress recall, the company said TCA posed no known health risk.
There are no industry or government standards regarding the chemicals that companies pump into mattresses, WPBF-TV in West Palm Beach reported. The only government requirement is that mattresses must be flame-retardant, which means many mattresses are packed with irritating chemicals like pesticides and formaldehyde.
"Formaldehyde, unless they've changed it recently, is the major
component in embalming fluid," said allergist Dr. Dan Tucker. "It kills things. It kills bacteria fungi -- and enough of it kills people."
Tucker said researchers don't know how chemicals in mattresses could affect humans. But studies have shown the body stores many of the chemicals found in mattresses in fatty tissue, including the brain.
"We don't honestly know what the long-term effects (of the chemicals) are," Tucker said. "And (there is) a considerable suspicion that they do contribute to the chronic brain disorders as people get older. The less we are exposed to this, the better."
Tucker said he is disturbed with new research out of England that explores whether these mattress chemicals could have a link to Sudden
Infant Death Syndrome.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission said it looked into countless complaints about potential toxins in mattresses and saw "no health risk that would prompt a recall." The federal government refused to say whether they did any lab testing to back up the claim.
Meanwhile, few options exist. There are organic mattresses made with 100 percent cotton, which could be heavily processed. Lambs' wool and horsehair products also are on the market.
The bottom line: If you buy a mattress and it has a strange smell that lasts for weeks, call the retailer and request an exchange.
More Information:Manufacturers Other Resources
- Industry Web Site
- Make A Federal Complaint or call the CPSC: (800) 638-CPSC
- HealthEHouse.com
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