I’m looking for baby mattress and other stuff and trying to buy items that contain the least harmful substances. The two certifications that come up the most are Oeko Tex and GOTS. How are they different in terms of the final product? I understand that GOTS certifies the production process and Oeko tex tests the final item. So what certification would guarantee a safer product at the end? Doesn’t Oeko allow some of the fire retardants to be used? What about pesticide residue, would Oeko test for that as well? Thanks!
Hi marina_v,
Oeko-Tex is a safety certification that involves testing a material for harmful substances and VOC’s to make sure that the amounts are lower than than the testing criteria and GOTS is an organic certification that is used to certify that a product was made using certified organic raw materials and manufacturing processes and doesn’t test for “safety”. There is more detailed information about safety and organic certifications in post #2 here and the posts it links to and in post #2 here.
Phoenix
I understand that those two certifications have different procedures, but which one would guarantee a safer product at the end?
As Phoenix mentioned, GOTS isn’t a “safety” certification, so between the two certifications you mentioned Oeko-Tex would be the one that is actually testing for harmful substances and VOCs.
“Safe” is a subjective term, and your definition of what is safe is the one that matters. Just because something is “organic” doesn’t mean that it’s free from harmful substances, as there are many naturally occurring elements that can be toxic. But in the mattress industry items that have the GOTS/GOLS certification tend to be what most people would term “safe.” Oeko-Tex will test organic certified and non-organic products, and there are examples of both types receiving Oeko-Tex certification.
Take some time to read through the links Phoenix provided. If you want to get a brief education about these certifications it will take a few hours of reading. Delve through the actual GOTS/GOLS certification standards and then read through what Oeko-Tex actually tests for. Then you will be able in your own mind to determine what these standards mean and if their protocols certify a product to a standard that you personally deem to be “safe.”
I get your question quite often in my store. I’m perfectly comfortable sleeping upon a mattress using polyurethane foam (even though my every night mattress is latex) and I don’t believe it will cause me to contract a myriad of diseases. Others are not comfortable with this and only want to sleep on a thin layer pre-compressed cotton felt . Use the empirical data from these testing organizations to help reassure and dovetail to your personal belief of “safe” and then you’ll be able to rest comfortably - hopefully both mentally and physically.
Good luck!