What does off-gassing of a new mattress do to you?
Asked by
skfinkel (
13542
)
October 22nd, 2011
I have a new bed that is all foam—very comfortable. But the smell is a sharp kind of smell, not bad, but very clear. Is this really bad? and how—like mood swings? carcinogenic? or what? if anything. And, how long until the smell wears off? If I stick the mattress outside every day, will that help?
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5 Answers
It’s probably just cleaner from the manufacturing, or some “new mattress scent” they add. I’m sure they ensure that its safe since people sleep on it.
Polyurethane foam and flame retardants off-gas and decompose over time. The typical mattress and box spring is soaked in a strange brew of fire retardant chemicals, formaldehyde, and other toxic glues, stains, and coatings. These chemicals can release deadly and often carcinogenic gasses.
Almost every mattress produced has some form of polyurethane foam, which tends to off-gas isocyanate (an agitator or catalyst which creates the foam bubbles). No studies have demonstrated that the trace amounts of isocyanate found in polyurethane foam off-gassing present any demonstrable health risk. Some people have reported headaches and irritation from certain brands of mattresses; its possible these reactions could be due to flame retardants (phosphorus, arsenic, antimony, and boron). If you find you are allergic to isocynate even in trace amounts, you may be disappointed to find the material is used in almost every mattress produced.
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I bought a mattress last year and in the instructions it read that we had to put it in the open air for 24 hrs (although I am not sure about the 24…, could have been less) to get rid of those smells.
Not sure if those smells (gasses?) are bad for your health but I suppose they advice you to air it just in case.
Leaving it outside to ventilate will definitely help a lot.
Do you have allergies? I don’t mean only the particular substances in this product. I’m referring to allergies to ANYTHING no matter in what category.
If so, you may wish to do some further research on the concept of “total allergy load”.
There are various analogies used to try to explain it. Basically it’s a “tipping point” type of a thing.
It not that easy to adequately explain in a few sentences so I’m not going to risk muddying the waters with an attempt. And it may not even be necessary to begin with.
But if you have ever had allergies (even if not currently bothering you) you really should look into it further.
I’ve read of some pretty severe accts. Not trying to scare you. Just caution.
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