From what I’m reading, latex may be the best comfort layer for my particular back issues and sleep style (side sleeper). But I’m worried about the potential smell, as I have trouble with the smell of latex gloves, they actually make me sneeze. Granted these gloves are probably made from a cheaper grade of latex. Is the latex used in mattresses generally treated to control the smell, or if thefre is a smell, can it be expected to go away after a while? Is there such thing as hypo-allergenic latex?
The type of materials used in a mattress has little to do with how good it may be for anyone’s back issues and the design and layering of a mattress would be a much more important consideration. Any type of mattress may work well or not work at all for any individual person depending on the design of the mattress and on how suitable it is in terms of PPP (Posture and alignment, Pressure relief, and Personal preferences) regardless of the materials that are used inside it.
In addition to PPP … the quality of the materials are also important … especially in the upper layers of the mattress (you can’t “feel” the quality of the materials) so that there is less risk or early softening and breakdown of the materials and the loss of comfort and support that goes with it.
Latex foam is made differently from other types of latex products such as gloves, condoms, balloons or other types of latex products (there is more about latex gloves and other medical equipment in this article). In the case of gloves in particular it’s often the powder on the gloves binding to the latex surface proteins that can cause latex particles to become airborne.
There are also two different types of latex allergies with one being a contact allergy (which isn’t an issue with mattresses because there is no direct contact with the latex) and the other is an immune system response which is fortunately very rare but much more serious. There is more about latex allergies in post #2 here.
There are some types of latex which uses raw materials made from alternative sources of latex such as rubber sourced from Guayule or Russian Dandelion or technologies like Vytex rubber that contain less of the allergenic proteins found in latex from rubber trees but these are not yet generally available in latex foam. Synthetic latex also doesn’t contain the proteins that are the most likely cause of a true type 1 latex allergy but will still contain the chemicals and substances used to make the foam that are the most likely cause of type IV allergies.
Natural Latex can also be helpful for other major allergens such as dust mites and their byproducts because it is the most breathable type of foam and can help reduce the humidity levels in a mattress and has antifungal properties which can lead to lower dust mite concentrations (see post #2 here)
You can read more about the “smell” of latex in post #2 here but it isn’t harmful and will normally be reduced to undetectable levels fairly quickly.