OMI's cotton blend cover and Savvy Rest Serenity

[phoenix]

Hi carence,

I am looking at OMI’s new Naturals line. All seems good except that they cover is a cotton blend. I called them and they told me that it is a cotton/polyester blend with wool woven in for fp. The mattress will be green guard certified, but only the latex is Oeko-tex certified. (which I understand is good to have to know if chemicals will be transmitted through skin contact or ingested) The cover material does not have this certification… I have read that polyester is inert once bound, but want to make sure that the cover is not a threat to my health. Is it extremely important to have an organic cotton/wool covering?

The Greenguard Gold certification tests for VOC’s for the entire mattress assembly and not just for the individual components so there certainly wouldn’t be any issues with harmful VOC’s.

There is also more information about the 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 that can help you decide whether an organic certification is important to you or whether a “safety” certification is enough.

These types of issues are complex and are generally specific to each person and their individual sensitivities, circumstances, criteria, beliefs, and lifestyle choices. I would personally consider polyester fabrics or blends to be “safe enough” because as you mentioned once they are copolymerized the polymers are inert even though they are made from petrochemicals but of course there would be some people that for many reasons may not be comfortable with synthetic fabrics for reasons other than “safety” or because they have specific sensitivities or health conditions (such as multiple chemical sensitivities) or a history that indicates that they are sensitive to some materials that most people would be fine with or that wish to avoid anything that they consider to be potentially questionable or where they don’t have all the more finely detailed information available to make a choice that they consider to be “risk free”. In some cases they may just wish to “err” on the side of caution and more natural materials (or an organic certification) just because they feel better about their choices regardless of whether they would actually be harmful. A google search on “polyester safety” will bring up much more information on both sides of the polyester “safety” issue including this link which has a more negative view of polyester that can help you decide whether polyester fabrics are inside the “risk tolerance” that you are comfortable with.

Also, what are your thoughts on the Savvy Rest Serenity. I have read that you think there are comparable mattresses for a better value, but you do think that it is a solid and clean mattress, and honest company? The only bad reviews I have found are that they give off a vanilla scented odor that can be unbearable.

Savvy Rest certainly makes high quality mattresses and provide a choice between organic Dunlop or 100% natural Talalay latex and have a high quality organic cotton cover quilted with natural wool. The “vanilla” or “sweet” smell you are referring to is typical of Talalay latex and is certainly not harmful (see post #2 here).

They are certainly a reliable company IMO and they are fairly widely available through their dealer network (some of which may be more knowledgeable and experienced than others) but as you mentioned they are also in a much higher budget range than many other similar mattresses that have a very similar design and use the same or very similar materials and components. A forum search on Savvy Rest (you can just click the link) will bring up much more comments and feedback about them.

Phoenix