I’m really in love with the Tempur-Pedic Cloud Luxe. But after doing some online research, it looks like there is a lot of stuff out there about them being toxic. I understand that visco elastic polyurethane is a petroleum based synthetic, so it’s full of chemicals. But we’re around chemicals all the time, heck, our body produces lots of chemicals on its own.
That being said, is there any definitive evidence one way or the other on this? It seems all the articles I can find are either on organic living type blogs, or on kinda fishy websites that look like they may have been set up by other more “natural” mattress makes to discredit memory foam. They’re definitely slanted articles. And none of them can really produce any hard science as to the amounts of these chemicals that are present. They could be trace levels that were left over from manufacturing.
I know they definitely have to air out, but is that smell from a new memory foam mattress really the VOCs that everyone is so worried about? Or is that just the smell of that mattress and it fades? It just seems like there is so much conflicting evidence out there. Why hasn’t anyone just sent off a chunk of Tempur-Pedic foam to a lab to be analyzed and then published the results online? I mean, if it really was as toxic as these people are claiming, wouldn’t that be the first thing someone would do, get it tested so they could publish actual quantities of VOCs off gassing and toxic chemicals in the mattress? Also, it makes sense to me that a lot of the chemicals used would become inert once the polyurethane is in its final form. Right? And, if it really was so dangerous, how could the EPA and other government programs continue to let us sleep on it. Wouldn’t there be some giant class action lawsuit if adverse health effects really could be linked to memory foam mattresses?
I’ve had a latex bed for years, and I really like it, but I want something a little less springy, and more of the cuddly, sink in to it quality of the Tempur-Pedic. Sorry for so many questions. I’m just feeling confused!!