How long to let a new foam mattress off-gas?

[Gumby]

We just got a new bed delivered today and I was planning to let it off-gas anyway, but my, it stinks! blech!

For how long? We were hoping to actually stay in our new house soon...and we have a out of town guest coming on thursday. FWIW, it's memory foam by Land&Sky.

What's the consensus?

[talia rose]

please be aware of health problems that may pop up. memory foam was found in a german study a few years ago to be the most toxic mattress on the planet. i have had customers (have an organic mattress store) who have suffered serious health effects (one dads child shut down breathing his first night on one) you may be just fine (as far as immediate noticeable effects)but watch out. it will offgas for years but not always be so bad as now. they never tell you that nasa rejected the stuff for offgassing, do they?

[artemis33]

yeah, give it at least 2 weeks with the doors closed on that room and the windows open. Or if you are still in the return period, you might want to consider that.

I really wish we had gone with a natural latex mattress instead of our Tempurpedic . Yeah, it is really comfy, but it is obviously full of toxins since it made me really sick for the first couple of weeks! YUCK! I wish I had returned it while I could



(but yeah, I don't smell the fumes now and it is certianly the most comfy mattress I have ever had - this is 3 years later)

[Periwinkle]

Our plan is always 2 weeks in the garage with the top of the bag opened and then : no critters find it. lol

[prettymom]

To quicken the process...

Have everyone in your family put on clean socks and run and jump all over the mattress. You need to just move the old air out so clean air can come in. Open and windows and turn on fans while you do this. Our tempurpedic de-gassed within a couple days by doing this. We got the recommendation from a Relax the Back store, where the owner and his employees would give "the white sock service" before sending out new mattresses.

[swtmama2be]

ohhhh mama....this is such a tough issue. We bought a tempurpedic 4 or 5 years ago and I've never been more comfy....but I've been freaking out lately about the "toxicity" issue. We co-sleep with my almost 1 year old daughter and the thought of replacing the mattress from a financial perspective makes me positively ill.....However, I must tell you i just ordered a natural latex mattress friday....and listed my heavenly tempurpedic on craigslist. I haven't gotten the new one yet....so I dont know how it compares comfort wise...

im not trying to freak you out, but if you have a grace period you might want to look into returning it. On the other hand....maybe it is nothing to freak out about...mine didn't smell at all after just a few weeks. Good luck mama....theres plenty of info out there supporting both sides of the debate

[jayell79]

My sister has one of those memory foam toppers you put on a regular bed. She got it cheap at Walmart. She's had it for years and it still smells (if you put your nose to it.) It gave her headaches at first, so she let it air out on the cloths line for several days. It didn't seem to make much difference in the smell, but stopped giving her headaches. I read that it's mostly cheap foam made in China that have all the toxic chemicals, and I believe this to be true. It seems that some do, some don't.

We have a latex mattress, and it did smell "new" for the first few days. I'm sure it was the plastic it came wrapped in. I love it, and wouldn't trade it for the world!

[Gumby]

Thanks for all the imput. I wish I had looked into it more beforehand.

The bed was a gift, believe me, I wanted a latex one, but they were almost twice as much as the foam one we have. I wish I could return it and get a latex one...but we can't afford that right now...or could we...

[Pancakes]

This just makes me sick, I had no idea. My son sleeps on this every night.

Originally Posted by talia rose

please be aware of health problems that may pop up. memory foam was found in a german study a few years ago to be the most toxic mattress on the planet. i have had customers (have an organic mattress store) who have suffered serious health effects (one dads child shut down breathing his first night on one) you may be just fine (as far as immediate noticeable effects)but watch out. it will offgas for years but not always be so bad as now. they never tell you that nasa rejected the stuff for offgassing, do they?

[carajon]

Essentia matresses?

I have also been wondering about off-gassing. We were looking at memory foam toppers from emattress, but I came across a claim from essentia matresses that theirs do not contain any toxic chemicals. Does anyone know if there is any validity to this claim?

[talia rose]

the memory foam industry has a great pr campaign trying to convince people they are non toxic. i think it may be true that they do not contain PBDEs but memory foam is a horrible nasty petroleum based chemical product that makes a good percentage of people very sick. most of these people spend thousands of dollars going to the doctor to figure out what is wrong with them. never, ever would they suspect thier bed is causing it and no doctor is going to suggest that. we had a customer whose baby slept organic until he was four and a friend gave them a twin memory foam mattress. his child shut down breathing his first night on it. he drove 4 hours the next day to our store to get his child an organic mattress again. we have another customer, an elderly lady in Florida whose body swelled up in so much pain for years, no one could figure it out - then she got rid of her memory foam and got better. The stuff is poison. Maybe most people do not have reactions as severe as that, but they are still being poisoned nonetheless. All petroleum based foams must have flame retardents built in - think of what happens when you try and burn plastic. If they are not using the PBDEs which they have at last admitted have poisoned us and the earth so badly that it is showing up in our unborn babies cord blood, our breastmilk, and in EVERY HOUSEHOLD IN AMERICA in the dust that is created when these foams break down (offgassing is one thing but SVOCs actually get worse with age and are created particularly by petroleum based foams) then they are using a new nasty untested flame retardent that in 20 years we will find out is even worse. The law says we must put flame retardents in our mattresses. There are no guidelines as to what they should be so it is perfectly okay for these companies to use the carcenigenic chemicals they do WITH NO TESTING REQUIRED. If you care about your health and your families health please do not buy memory foam. It is worth the extra $$ to buy organic. Look for companies that use only WOOL as a flame retardent. I know I am super passionate about this but I got this way because I was pregant and did not want to poison my baby. I researched and what I found out shocked me. Now it is my business. I listen to these people when they come to us, so sick and I just want to cry. Before deciding to buy memory foam or any other petroleum based toxic bed please read this
http://www.chem-tox.com/guest/guestbook.html

[prettypixels]

Maybe just get a really good, airproof mattress cover to prevent any off-gassing after the initial breathing period?