Hi yogamomma5,
There is a difference between safety and the odor of a mattress (as you probably know) because many unsafe VOC’s are odorless and can’t be smelled at all. Talalay latex tends to have a sweet smell which some have describes as smelling like vanilla or sugar cookies and Dunlop latex tends to have more of a rubber smell that is stronger and probably a little less pleasant and can last longer. All the latex you are likely to encounter whether it is synthetic or natural has been tested to OekoTex 1 standard 100 class 1 (safe for babies) so I would consider all of them to be “safe” even though there are some people who prefer 100% natural rubber latex for personal reasons or for performance reasons. You can read a little more about the different types of latex in post #6 here and in post #6 here and most people who have sensitivities would consider latex to be the “safest” of the foam materials.
You can read a little more about some of the very complex issues surrounding other materials (such as polyfoam and memory foam) and fire barriers in mattresses in post #2 here and the other posts and information sources it links to. There are no definitive answers to the question “how safe is safe enough for me?” when it comes to polyfoam and memory foam because even though there are many foams that have CertiPur certification there are still a small minority of people who are sensitive to these materials. The odor of polyfoam and memory foam can also vary from batch to batch of the same foam.
Tempflow is one of the memory foam sources that I know has been tested for very low levels of VOC’s, is made from MDI instead of TDI and will provide you with the specific results of their testing and also has very little odor (I have one of their pillows). You can read some of my comments about them in post #9 here and Rick who designs their mattresses is well worth talking to (coincidentally I talked with him today about this very subject) however I do understand that the cost of more premium foams can also put a mattress out of a certain budget range. If you get regular delivery for a mattress and they don’t remove your old one then companies like http://www.recovercanada.com/ can pick up your mattress for a reasonable cost and recycle it.
You can read a little more about Essentia in this thread and in this thread and in general I would avoid them both because they are not particularly good value and because of the misleading and inaccurate claims they make on their site.
Some of these are very good quality but “best value” is relative to what is available to you in a constantly changing market and has too many variables to narrow down to just one or even a few manufacturers, retailers, or mattresses (not to mention that I don’t have a list of all the prices). Quantifying value based on a formula is not really possible (either in terms of the time it would take or the method that was used) when there are many unknowns like the type and amount of wool in a cover or the type of cover fabric or somehow including all the more detailed specifics of the design and materials in the mattress. Value has many other components besides just price that can be equally important parts of each person’s mattress purchase and personal value equation. Because of this I focus on helping people with how to recognize value based on their own personal criteria and leave final choices and “best value” judgements up to each person on an individual basis. My goal in other words is to help each person to have the tools to research and decide this for themselves based on their own personal criteria and it would be counterproductive to eliminate a large number of manufacturers or retailers that are among the better value in the industry because the definition of value used was much too narrow or only based on a single part of the value of a mattress purchase. If you have two mattresses you are comparing and can list all the layers and components of each one on the forum I’d be happy to share my thoughts about how they may compare but only each person can decide which one has the best “value”.
Some of the factory direct manufacturers south of Toronto are listed in post #8 here including one in St Catharines.
I know you’ve probably also read these but just in case some of the Toronto threads that have some good feedback from members in the Toronto or Ontario area and and mention prices are here and here and here and here and here and here and a forum search on Toronto (you can just click this) will bring up others as well that may help you make some good value comparisons.
Phoenix