Mattress Forum

Your issue was so extreme that I would think this as well ... and for public relations reasons if for nothing else I would think that Greensleep would be MUCH more willing to make exceptions to their "policy".

I wonder if this is a "greensleep" issue or a "sleeptek" issue. Sleeptek is (or perhaps was based on an earlier comment by Budgy) the licensee for greensleep.

Sleeptek (Sueno/Obasan/private label) also makes a really nice innerspring/natural stuffing mattress which is highly regarded apparently.

Phoenix

  The reaction may sound extreme but there is nothing mild about a Type II latex allergy.  It effects your respiratory system making it very difficult to breathe, and very likely is the reason why the odour became much more noticeable after you woke up in agony. What you are decribing with the taste and smell also sounds typical of someone experiencing a type II latex allergy.  At the end of the day the retailer is the actual company you purchased the product from, they will be responsible for trying to satisfy you.  The retailer will likely not be out any significant amount of funds either, so its not like the manufacturer needs to step in on their behalf.  I am just grateful you didn't have a type III reaction which is much more rare, you could have gone into anaphylactic shock, in some extreme cases it can actually be life threatening.  Type I allergy (the kind most people get from gloves) usually only gives you a bad rash or inflammation of the skin, some people might have an issue with gloves and be able to sleep on a rubber mattress, in your case I would probably avoid natural rubber content in gloves now too. 

Yes. The Obasan is one of a few I'm checking into (the others being Royal-Pedic and Shepherd's Dream 'wool' mattress).

Thanks for this new piece of information. I thought they had changed based on your earlier comment.

This sounds more to me like a type 1 allergy (anaphylactic type) than any of the other 3 types and if this is the case is much more serious than a more simple contact type of hypersensitivity. I know they can be serious as I have had a similar issue with something else that developed over a long time (peanut butter) which scared the life out of me (woke me up from a deep sleep unable to breathe through both constriction of the airway and reflux). It was not as long lasting as this though and my reaction for now is dependent on amount I eat and went away much more quickly. I need to be careful because I know it can worsen over time.

In this case something was causing the reaction to last for a long time and was not so much contact oriented which could also point to inhaled latex (or inhaled something). There are also certain foods that can contribute to a latex hypersensitivity.

There are a lot of good links about this but the most important part for now (at least for me) would be to find out what it was as it could progress. If it really did come from "normal" latex, then this could be a real issue as latex is endemic in our culture. If it was an issue with the latex that was more unique to that specific batch, mattress, or material (which I suspect), then knowing what it was would be more difficult. This is where the supplier could make a difference in being more co-operative or at least taking an interest in investigating that "batch".

Phoenix

These guys "copy" other mattresses and are based in Vancouver so may be worth a call as well http://www.parkersmattress.com since shipping would probably not be too much to Alberta if they make anything close to what you want.

There's probably more custom manufacturers in Quebec than anywhere else in Canada but "je ne parle francais" so I didn't look too closely at most of them in my research.

Phoenix

In any event, if it is a latex protein that caused the reaction then what is the manufacturer supposed to do? All their rubber will contain the same protein.  In any event the symptoms sound text book latex allergy, the shortness of breath, coughing, etc.  This is all the more reason why people need to be careful about who they buy from, most people don't have a rubber allergy but like other allergies we can develop them any time in our life, so its good to have some polices that protect you.  Terra, sounds to me like you just had a really BAD reaction to it, thats the most unfortunate part.  If anyone has allergy concerns and they are buying a natural rubber mattress then you want to know what protection you have in the event this happens. 

These guys are also getting regular testing on the contents of complete mattresses, from their UK website:

http://greensleep.com/Europe/Great-Brittain/EN/PDF/Hevea.pdf

I hope that helps put you at ease that the chances of this being something other than latex as the trigger are incredibly slim.  Also according to the UK site they sell some 15,000 mattresses every year (worldwide I am assuming), and take back about 4 because of allergy issues, I suspect they probably have more than that many people actually have the issue because GreenSleep NA does not have the same return policies, here it is the retailers responsibility.