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Memory Foam products, commonly known as Polyurethane foam, are quite flammable. To counter this problem the Polyurethane foam manufactures have for the past 30 years used "flame retardants" or "combustion modifyers". These include Poly Brominated Diphenyl Ethers "PDBE", Melamine, other halogenated (chlorine or bromine containing) compounds in conjunction with organic phosphorus compounds such as phosphate esters. http://www.pfa.org/EFC9_Handout.html PDBE Health and environmental concerns Published studies express concern because exposure to PBDEs impairs development of the nervous system. PBDEs have also been shown to have hormone disrupting effects, particularly on estrogen and thyroid hormones. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) noted that PBDEs are particularly toxic to the developing brains of animals. Peer-reviewed studies have shown that even a single dose administered to mice during development of the brain can cause permanent changes in behavior, including hyperactivity http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polybrominated_diphenyl_ethers
Related: EPA Study Reveals Possible Connection Between Common Household Pollutant and Feline Hyperthyroidism http://www.aspca.org/pressroom/press-releases/082207-1.html BPA Plastics and PBDEs Increase Concerns for Infertility http://www.naturalnews.com/028219_BPA_infertility.html Levels of Common Fire Retardants in Humans are Rising Rapidly http://articles.latimes.com/2003/apr/20/local/me-chemicals20 This message was modified Mar 20, 2010 by zzzombie
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IT's always something... Thanks for the info... One reason to go with natural latex, I suppose. Though someone was saying even that is processed using harsh chemicals of one sort or another, so who knows? Budgy? |
| theres always going to be some trace amounts of ash and alkaline metals in natural latex as those are the vulcanizing agents that have to be added to make it into a foam product. but no VOC's or PBDE's are used. SBR rubber is a suspected carcinogen however. But several orders of magnitude lower on the overall health risk scale compared to standard PU foams/memory foams |
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zzzombie wrote: Memory Foam products, commonly known as Polyurethane foam, are quite flammable. To counter this problem the Polyurethane foam manufactures have for the past 30 years used "flame retardants" or "combustion modifyers". These include Poly Brominated Diphenyl Ethers "PDBE", Melamine, other halogenated (chlorine or bromine containing) compounds in conjunction with organic phosphorus compounds such as phosphate esters. "Bergad, Inc. has developed a viscoelastic foam that has virtually eliminated hazardous chemical off-gassing. The new process completely eliminates the use of TDI (toluene diisocyanate), an OSHA class 3 carcinogen. Foams manufactured with TDI are known to release the carcinogen TDA (toluenediamine) after production. The new formula also does away with brominated and halogenated fire retardants as well as un-reacted amines." |
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This might be a good thread in which to ask you something I was wondering about, budgy. I notice that TempurPedic skirts the question of what exactly is offgassing in their mattresses when consumers complain about the smell. Do you know what that is that is offgassing?
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I would also like to ask if anyone has reported sypmptoms like eye-watering from foam, particularly memory foam or latex? I have been having an eye-watering problem for about 4 months and it's definitely coming from the bedroom, as it only happens when I lay down in there, and it happens almost immediately. I THINK it's dust mites, but not sure. I wonder if it could be my memory foam pillow or ?? latex or ?? I do have my pillow in an allergy-proof dust mite proof cover, but I assume if it was from memory foam off-gassing, it would go through the cover, no? This message was modified Mar 19, 2010 by jimsocal
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jimsocal wrote: One reason to go with natural latex, I suppose. Though someone was saying even that is processed using harsh chemicals of one sort or another, so who knows? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vulcanization
That said, I would purchase natural or even synthetic latex over PU foam. I personally don't have concerns with the prossesing of latex. The vulcanization chemicals used don't gas off, absorb into your skin or cause cancer. There's no comparison to the damaging long term bioaccumulative effects of BDBE's common in polyurethane foams. Nice to know - after you dump that PU foam mattress in the land fill, you and future generations will all be consuming water, fish, hamburger, cheese, etc, contaminated with BDBE's. Latex rubber is naturally fire retardant & does not require addition of "chemical additives" to pass flamability regulations. This message was modified Mar 20, 2010 by zzzombie
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confusedbedbuyer wrote: This might be a good thread in which to ask you something I was wondering about, budgy. I notice that TempurPedic skirts the question of what exactly is offgassing in their mattresses when consumers complain about the smell. Do you know what that is that is offgassing?
1. Perhaps they know ahead of time that their product has no chance to pass these tests so don't subject them to the scrutiny anyway. 2. They paid for testing and did not pass. 3. They are making products that are not made to appeal to the still (surprisingly) small number of people that want to be free of these chemicals. Even if a company recieves certification it is up to them if they wish to publicize the exact results of the testing. Eco institute has a very strict standard on these materials, basically if you put a piece of foam in an air tight chamber for a week and they test the air quality, they allow for total VOC content to be in the range of just a few milligrams. In the detailed list they will show over 100 different chemicals they test for and the individual tolerance levels for most of these is measured in the micro gram scale per cubic meter of volume (the approximate size of an average queen mattress). |
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jimsocial: yes, my eyes definitely water (and throat gets a bit sore) when sleeping on memory foam. Diane |
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Hi Diane :) Yeah I spent the night on my parents Tempur in their guest room and my eyes also watered up quite a bit, throat also got dry and irritable. The wierd thing for me is that I have never considered myself hyper sensitive to these kinds of things. |
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Thanks a lot guys, for those responses re memory foam and for the OP for posting this info re mem.foam toxins. I had just assumed it was dust mites, but now I am suspecting the memory foam pillow. I have been having EXTREMELY watery eyes in my bedroom for several months, but since I am allergic to dust mites and we do not have allergy covers around our mattresses for various reasons, I figured dust mites were the culprits. They may still be, but first I'm going to try switching to another pillow. Even though I do have a dust-mite proof pillow cover, I bet those fumes could get through it. Also my wife is using a layer of Ostock fake Venus memory foam in her bed right next to mine, so that could be it, too, but I'm more inclined to suspect my pillow. The weird thing is, this happened a few months ago and I thought I had an eye infection or eye allergy so I have tried about 5 different kinds of eye drops with no success. I cleaned the room very thorougly a couple months ago and that did not help either. Well, I'll let you know if changing my pillow helps. What kind of pillow is less likely to affect my allergies? Just a regular dacron type? |