Why Sleep Organic?
Why sleep organic? For most people, one answer is to avoid unnecessary exposure to potentially harmful chemicals
There are three ways that your body can absorb toxins from the environment:
what you eat; what you breathe; and what your skin absorbs. While you sleep, your body is still absorbing through its
skin and is also breathing-in whatever your mattress is giving-off.
Regular mattresses can off-gas potentially harmful chemicals in two ways.
One way is from the chemicals that are used directly in the production. The most obvious example of this is with a memory foam type mattress.
If you know anyone who has one, ask them about the smell it gave off when they first bought it! Also, cotton-based mattresses, by law, must be
treated with chemical flame retardants, usually boron, chlorine or antimony. It is also known that the regular cotton batting used in many
mattresses contains measurable amounts of pesticide residue.
The second way regular mattresses give off harmful fumes occurs
as their synthetic materials break-down over time. For instance it is now suspected that polyurethane foam, used widely in regular mattresses,
breaks down into cancer-causing agents over time.
A short list of potentially toxic chemicals that can be absorbed every night includes
formaldehyde;
pesticide residue;
TDI;
boric acid;
and any number of flame retardant chemicals.
Read this recent article at
www.salon.com
and we expect you will become quite concerned about the chemicals used in regular mattresses.
Say good night to all that! Why not be sure that for at least one-third of each day, your
body is not taking in potentially harmful chemicals? The wool, latex and innerspring mattresses we carry are
as organic as you can get. Our organic bedding products help make your bed a completely synthetic-free and harmful-chemical-free sleep haven.
It is also important to sleep organic because organic products tend to be much gentler on Mother Earth, since insecticides, herbicides and other harsh chemicals
are not used in their production.
Mother Earth's creatures also tend to be treated more humanely when raised organically, since they are not given questionable
doses of antibiotics, growth hormones or genetically engineered foods.
And finally, when you buy organic, you help promote companies and industry practices based on sustainable practices and
renewable resources.
Is Organic All I Need?
No. Just by virtue of being organically grown doesn't always mean free of harmful chemicals. For instance, some latex mattress retailers sell organic
latex mattresses that use organic cotton mattress casings. ALL cotton mattress casings, even organic ones, must by law have some sort of flame
retardant added. Only a mattress casing made with wool batting can meet the flammability test with no chemicals added. This is because unlike cotton,
wool is naturally flame resistant.
Another consideration regarding synthetics is the latex mattress itself. Latex can either be natural rubber latex (NRL) or it can be a blend of NRL and synthetic foams.
Many companies use blended latex, but simply describe it as latex or even natural latex.
To know what you are getting, you must ask "how much of the foam is NRL?" Then hope to get a knowledgeable, truthful answer. But sadly many salespeople don't
know the answer, and some business owners would prefer not to tell you that they are using blended latex. Or they may try
to convince you that a synthetic blend of latex is better than pure natural rubber latex. But only NRL is free from off-gassing, is plant-based and is renewable.
Labeling for Organics
The purest level of organic is labeled "100% organic". An "organic" label means at least 95% organic materials, and a "made with organic" label means the product contains at least 70% organic materials.