Hi Eeks,
The latex in the BME is certified by Oeko-Tex and the polyfoam is certified by CertiPUR so there would certainly be no issues in terms of the safety of the materials or any harmful offgassing and VOC’s.
Hopefully some of the forum members that own the BME or a SleepEZ mattress will see your post and share their comments.
In the hundreds of comments on the forum about the BME mattress the only ones that have mentioned smell at all since the mattress was first launched have said that it is slight and even the slight smell dissipates quickly (even from those that have said they were sensitive to smells). There have been no comments on the forum about a strong smell.
In terms of “all latex” mattresses such such as SleepEZ … all the latex you are likely to encounter (either Dunlop or Talalay that is made with either natural or synthetic rubber or a blend of both) will have a reliable certification such as Oeko-Tex, Eco-Institut, or Greenguard Gold (see post #2 here) or C2C (see post #13 here) and based on actual testing I would consider any type or blend of latex to be a very “safe” material in terms of harmful substances and VOC’s but outside of the “safety” of latex … any initial smell from a latex mattress would depend on the type and blend of the latex and there is more about the smell of latex in post #2 here.
While most people wouldn’t have any issues with either mattress in terms of smell … different people can also have a very different sense of smell and some people may be sensitive to a smell that doesn’t bother others or that some people don’t notice at all so if you are very sensitive to smells that most people wouldn’t be sensitive to then the return/exchange policy may become a more important part of the “value” of a mattress purchase so you can assess the smell of the mattress based on your own personal experience rather than relying on other people’s sense of smell which may be very different from your own.
Phoenix