Hey MaryD,
I’m not Phoenix, but I think I can help with some of your questions.
“Harmful” has no exact definition in a situation such as this, but what I think your concern may be would be for testing for harmful substances and the like. There’s a commonly linked post here that speaks about this directly and I’ll copy it here for you as I think it may be helpful to you:
[i]There is more about the different types of organic and safety certifications such as Oeko-tex, Eco-Institut, Greenguard Gold, C2C, and CertiPUR-US in post #2 here and more about some of the differences between organic and safety certifications in post #2 here and there are also some comments in post #42 here that can help you decide whether an organic certification is important to you for environmental, social, or personal reasons or whether a “safety” certification is enough.
The only reliable way to assess the “safety” of different materials in more general terms is based on lab tests and the certifications they have for harmful substances and VOCs (regardless of whether they are organic or natural or synthetic) so that you have some assurance than the VOCs are below the testing limits for the certification. If the materials in a mattress or the mattress itself has a reliable “safety” certification then for most people they would certainly be “safe enough” … regardless of the type of material or the name of the manufacturer on the label.[/i]
That unfortunately would not be accurate information you received. If a mattress is advertised as 100% Natural latex, it means that the latex (rubber) component is from the hevea tree and not synthetically derived. There are of course small amounts of other accelerants, antioxidants, gelling agents, etc., added to complete the finished foamed rubber latex piece. If a latex is listed as Blended, the latex (rubber) part would be a mix of natural and synthetic latex. Blended latex is still able to pass very strict safety certifications such as Oeko-Tex 100, level I (for infants and children), and would generally be considered to be a quite “safe” material as far as that testing goes.
Use the search feature here on the forum and type in Toronto and I know you’ll get some results, as the greater Toronto area has been discussed quite a bit here on the forum. I’m 5 hours from Toronto, so I don’t have any specific recommendations for you in that area.
I hope that information helps!
Jeff Scheuer, The Beducator
Beducation / Mattress To Go