My Essentia.com False Advertising and Lying to Consumer

[phoenix]

Hi Brent,

I am also looking for a more natural mattress. How do I know if any of these companies are telling the truth on their websites? Is it just that essentia is more brazen about their claims and they are touting new technology that can’t be verified because they are hiding behind patents?

Most reputable manufacturers will give you accurate information about the type of materials they use in their mattresses. Essentia is an exception where lab testing on their natural memory foam shows that it doesn’t contain any latex that shows up in the tests so the claims that they are making about their natural memory foam containing latex aren’t accurate.

If I go to other sites like savvy rest and naturepedic they are claiming organic and natural too. But it looks like all three are using the same Dunlop latex. Is there really such a thing as 100% natural or do all these companies use a few non organic compounds like Diphenyl diisocyanate or Waxes styrene-butadiene copolymer? Are these three companies supplying about the same product in term of healthiest placing marketing gimmicks aside? Thanks.

Essentia does use 100% natural Dunlop latex in their base layers but it’s their so called “latex memory foam” which is misleading.

The only reliable way to 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 so that you have some assurance than the VOCs are below the testing limits for the certification.

Most people that are looking for an “organic” mattress are usually concerned more with “safety” than whether the materials have an actual organic 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 in post #2 here and more about some of the differences between organic and safety certifications in post #2 here and there are 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.

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 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 to be a very “safe” material in terms of harmful substances and VOC’s.

100% natural latex means that all the rubber used in the latex foam compounding formulation is natural rubber (vs synthetic rubber) but there are also small amounts of other substances used in the formulation to foam and manufacturer the latex. There is more about 100% natural latex in post #18 here).

There is also more about the different types and blends of latex in post #6 here.

Phoenix