Essentia bionda mattress odor

Hi Am01231,

While I can’t speak to what you may be smelling in your new mattress (different people have different sensitivities to different odors), all new latex certainly will have a certain odor. It is important to note that the presence of an odor isn’t the same as the presence of VOCs, and vice versa. This comment isn’t meant to cause you more concern, but simply a reference statement for others who may read this post in the future.

As a reference, most people that are looking for an “organic” mattress or materials are usually concerned more with “safety” than whether the materials have an actual organic certification and they usually aren’t aware that an organic certification isn’t the same thing as a safety certification. There is more information about the three different levels of organic certifications in post #2 here and some of the benefits of an organic certification in post #3 here and 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.

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 also have a reliable certification such as Oeko-Tex, Eco-Institut, Greenguard Gold or C2C and based on actual testing I would consider any type or blend of latex (regardless of whether it is synthetic, natural, or blended) to be a very “safe” material in terms of harmful substances and VOC’s (offgassing).

You can read my comments above for a further explanation about VOCs and latex. You can also read my comments in my previous reply cautioning about using information presented on the Essentia web site as your sole reliable source of “fact based” information.

I’ll be interested in learning how your odor dissipates over the next few weeks.

Phoenix