Re: Dateline on the hazards of reconditioned mattresses

[Guest guest]

Don't buy a new one either since its loaded with toxic foam, and flame

retardants.

I have been researching this and think either latex or wool are the

only good options for beds.

Cotton absorbs moisture and a cotton futon or all cotton mattress will

get dust mites and mold sooner rather than later imo.

''

>

> All:

>

> Last night, Dateline revisited the issue of reconditioned mattresses

> and it's a real eye opener:

>

> http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24226788/

>

> Apparently, some hotels purchase these reconditioned mattresses

> because they are so inexpensive. The mattresses also find their way

> into low income homes.

> The stuffing in many cases was filthy, contained fungi and bed bug

> debris. (They did not look for house-dust-mite allergens!)

>

> I have had a few experiences with items that were even sold as new but

> contaminated. In one case, a futon mattress was filled with mold,

> pollen and insect debris after (presumably) being outdoors in the rain

> and resold as new. Another new mattress contained wood char and pollen

> and had obviously been in a warehouse fire and placed outdoors to dry.

>

> One client who purchased a custom-made, $5,000 couch is still waiting

> to get her money back because the feather stuffing was used material

> and full of dust mite droppings.

>

> Another mold-allergic and chemically sensitive client purchased a

> $3,000 mattress that was supposedly pesticide-free and all-organic. It

> was stuffed with all-moldy fibers.

>

> Based on my experiences with these contaminated materials, the public

> health consequences associated with reconditioned, " cushioned " items

> are significant.

>

> I would not even consider accepting a used mattress (unless it is

> sealed airtight in a dust-mite encasing)and you know the donor.

>

> I never had an allergy until I purchased a 30-year old bed for my

> first apartment during college.

>

> C. May

> May Indoor Air Investigations LLC

> Author, " Jeff May's Healthy Home Tips "

> ww.mayindoorair.com

> www.myhouseiskillingme.com

>

[Guest guest]

Also keep in mind that the used mattresses sold at Goodwill and the

Salvation Army have been transferred by truck from some unbeknown

place. You are NOT buying a used mattress from someone in your

community more than likely. So who knows what's growing inside that

mattress.

A few years back you could find better quality stuff that was just

dropped off from someone in your community. Seems to me it would save

a lot of gas not having to haul all the furnishings from place to

place but instead just selling what's been left at the dropoff in your

own community. I'm suspicious of what they're doing.

[Guest guest]

In fact, let me add to this.

I made the discovery lately that my sinuses, ears, congestion,

achiness, stiff joints, grogginess, etc, clear up (when I wake in the

mornings) when I don't sleep on a mattress or even my couch cushions.

For various reasons and a series of coincidences, I ended up sleeping

on the floor on featherbed, yoga mats, comforter. I can't do it

longterm as it hurts too much and my muscles get way too stiff and I

can't turn on my side etc. However during that time my nose cleared

up. No more morning congestion, blowing my nose in the shower, getting

out all the gunk. My wheezing got better. Mattresses with foam and

cotton, slept on by people year in year out, get moldy and that's

that. Not only do they have chemicals, they have mold. Even pillows,

in various studies, get mites and mold within 3 months of use. Why

does anyone think their mattress, on which their nearly 100 degree

bodies lie all night, often UNDER heat retaining quilts and

comforters, would not? Especially since our bodies give off moisture.

I haven't found a solution yet because I have to spring for a woolbed

and its exorbitant. I may patch together a bed from a rollaway cot or

a camping cot (but some camping cots smell awful--whatever chemically

soaked material they stretch across as canvas can be unpalatable. I

was in a big sporting goods store yesterday, which itself is full of

smells from offgassing nylons, rubbers, all kinds of 'modern'

materials, that made me feel yucky, and one of the slumberjack large

camping cots, smelled awful. The other one by Byer of Maine did not

but was smaller. In any case, sleeping on my couch cushions of my

Ligne Roset high end couch, I ended up the first night feeling a bit

feverish, parched, achy, stuffed up, etc. Now after four nights my

body is not giving the feverish feelings, but the congestion is

getting worse.

Its bad enough to get a " new " item that was made with moldy fibers,

but most of the old items surely have mold in them after use.

Having researched this a lot lately, I think for mold sensitive people

any kind of ordinary mattress is a bad thing. Now, wool doesn't get

that, and I don't believe latex does either. As I said in my previous

post, cotton DOES GET MOLDY. Its a plant and its cellular structure is

such that it absorbs water, as well as odors. Cotton will smell like

whatever it was processed near (in the plant). In addition 25% of the

world's pesticides are used on cotton. Even an organic cotton futon in

my opinion would get moldy. Perhaps layering several organic cotton

futons on a slatted frame, turning them and airing them out would

help. Remember, the traditional Japanese way is to have extremely thin

futons that they air out and roll up by day. Our futons here are much

much thicker and that much harder to move and that much likelier to

get mites and mold.

What does anybody think about this?

I'm really fed up with the symptoms, and I may have gotten a series of

particularly moldy mattresses (I tried to get rid of my high end foam

mattress, but the next few mattresses I got from craigslist, which is

a local bulletin board, all bothered me. I didn't even use any of

them. I mean, years ago, before I got lyme, I don't remember being

congested. OTOH years ago I bought a new mattress, and, I don't think

mattresses had so many chemicals back then.

The chemicals are bad too. Some people are getting very sick from the

chemicals in mattresses today. The same would hold true of couches I'm

sure. Anything stuffed with foam and cushiony.

>

> Don't buy a new one either since its loaded with toxic foam, and flame

> retardants.

>

> I have been researching this and think either latex or wool are the

> only good options for beds.

>

> Cotton absorbs moisture and a cotton futon or all cotton mattress will

> get dust mites and mold sooner rather than later imo.

>

>