Hi Gang~
We are hoping to purchase a latex bed and the first site my wife found was NonToxicBeds.com. Has anyone purchased a mattress through them?
I’ve read over their stuff a bit but they don’t go into any details about what type of latex they use. I also notice they are not on TheMattressUnderground’s list of members.
Thanks for your feedback/insight.
Hi BubbleGeoff,
I’m sure someone will have a more diplomatic answer than I, but based on their website I’d avoid them like the plague. It’s filled with half truths and their products don’t list a single certification to indicate the safety of the materials / chemicals in their products, several certifications requiring lab testing to achieve. They might be selling beds without a chemical flame retardant and only use a FR sock, but even that you’d need to trust them on, and given the seemingly deliberate half truths I would not find them trustworthy.
That said, yes, some people are concerned about the health impacts of chemical flame retardant (FR) treatments. You may want to investigate this.
Equally, some people are concerned about off gassing from polyfoam and memory foam.
Still others may have allergic reactions to latex, which in exceedingly rare instances can be serious.
Their website doesn’t list any of this - I.e. They’re hardly doing a service to the consumer. They’re fear mongering 1 topic, in accurately, to get you to buy their product.
Phoenix has some great posts on ‘how safe is safe enough for me’. I don’t have the links handy, but you’re at the right place and you should be able to find a lot through this website.
Hint: chemical free FR is often achieved with wool (no it doesn’t burn like they show when used as a FR barrier) or a rayon material. You probably want Oeko-Tex 100 certification for latex and/or textiles, and CertiPUR for polyfoam or memory foam. That said, some people may not find those certifications to meet their desires, and may avoid certain materials anyhow.
It’s quite easy to find brands that don’t use chemical FR’s if that’s your only concern, and several of the members of TMU (most?) don’t use chemical FR’s. It’s definitely not true that your only option to avoid chemical FR’s is to buy a bed from nontoxic beds and remove the FR sock they use … That’s simply not true.
Good luck 
Hi BubbleGeoff,
Nontoxicbeds is the online site for Strobel.
In my conversations with them they were not particularly transparent (see post #4 here) and some of the information on the Strobel site is also not particularly accurate IMO (see some of the comments in post #2 here and post #39 here). A forum search on Strobel (you can just click this) will bring up more information about them as well.
Their latex appears to be 100% natural Dunlop but they wouldn’t be among my first choices for an online purchase for reasons of transparency, the lack of firmness choices available, their “fear mongering” and somewhat inaccurate marketing strategies, and also because they are not particularly good “value” compared to many other latex options that are available.
The best place to start your research is the tutorial post here which has all the basic information, steps, and guidelines that can help you find the mattress that is best for you.
The post that dn was referring to (I didn’t see his post until after I had finished my reply) that can help you decide “how safe is safe enough for me?” is post #2 here and the links to other forum posts it leads to.
Phoenix
Thanks dn/Phoenix. We just ordered from SleepEZ!
Hi BubbleGeoff,
SleepEz is certainly a great choice … and congratulations on your new mattress
I hope you have the chance to share your feedback when you receive it.
Phoenix
dn said:
It has been my understanding that rayon by itself is not an FR barrier—rather, the rayon must be impregnated with silica (a “chemical”) to form an effective FR layer. Is that not correct?
[quote=“Bedimpediment” post=29327]dn said:
It has been my understanding that rayon by itself is not an FR barrier—rather, the rayon must be impregnated with silica (a “chemical”) to form an effective FR layer. Is that not correct?[/quote]
That’s correct. Some good information is on this website, and also other websites. E.g.
Hi Bedimpediment,
Just to confirm dn’s comments … rayon by itself isn’t used as a fire barrier. It is most commonly used as part of an inherent fire barrier where various substances (including silica or various phosphorous or nitrogen containing chemicals) are included as part of the fiber itself when it is manufactured (vs chemicals that are added as a coating) making it inherently fire resistant.
Phoenix