Is Your Mattress Making You Sick?
By Sara Butler
A good mattress is important for many reasons. Getting good quality sleep is important to your overall health and wellness, and a supportive mattress is essential to your spine health. But, when you’re looking at a mattress, there’s something else you need to think about: Toxicity. People don’t think about a mattress making them sick with toxic chemicals, but it certainly can. Here’s what you need to know about the chemicals that may be hiding in your mattress.
The Problem
You spend so much time in your bed sleeping that the chemicals in your mattress will impact you over time. They can lead to several problems, including:
- Fertility issues
- Allergies
- Hormone imbalances
To put it simply, your mattress can make you sick and you may not even be aware of it! The problem is that mattress manufacturers are not required by law to inform you what chemicals the mattress may be treated with. But, they are required by law to make sure your mattress is flame retardant, which means it won’t burst into flame when a blowtorch is placed on them. So, at the very least, you know your mattress has been treated with these chemicals in order to meet standards put in place by the law.
What Chemicals?
There are a couple of different chemicals that most mattresses are treated with. The most common include:
- PBDEs – Exposure to these chemicals can lead to many side effects such as thyroid disruption, hearing problems, cancer, fetal malformations and behavioral changes. If you have a mattress manufactured before 2004, it probably contains this – but you should be buying a mattress every 10 years anyway! PBDEs were banned after 2004.
- Formaldehyde – Since the 1960s, mattresses have been made of this polyurethane foam, and since formaldehyde is used in the adhesives of this material, it can lead to allergies, asthma, nervous system problems, and cancer.
The real problem with the chemicals used to make mattresses flame retardant is that they can eventually work their way to other parts of your home. They collect dust and can easily enter your body in that way, which explains why about 90 percent of Americans can find in their bodies at least some level of flame-retardant chemicals.
If you want to try to buy a mattress that is free from these chemicals, you should look for mattresses made from organic materials such as chemical-free cotton or chemical-free latex. They even have chemical-free wool, which is naturally flame retardant.
To learn more about your health and wellness, see your local chiropractor at The Joint Chiropractic.