Every time I see a Casper advertisement, I get that queasy feeling. Those cute cartoon people or animals on a bed, on pale blue or green backgrounds are so calming. Even so, they give me a queasy feeling. Once your food, water, and shelter are secure, there is no product purchase as important as the …
For a time I lived in an apartment with no furniture. After paying rent, there was just enough money for food and some basics. For a few months I slept in a sleeping bag and did not have a chair to sit on.
Global temperature is rising quickly. Deserts are expanding. Polar ice caps and glaciers are melting fast. Record breaking fires burn on every continent except Antarctica. Oceans are rising, acidifying and heating up.
Breaking with conventional bed and mattress design, we are introducing more demanding health and ecological standards that contradict the petrochemical-centric culture of the multi-billion dollar mattress industry.
Before World War II supply chains for rubber and oil were mostly under the influence of western democracies. Preparing for war, the German government needed inexpensive substitutes for rubber and oil based products.
Nearly all mattresses are made with flexible polyurethane foam (PU foam). PU foam is also widely used as padding under carpets, in upholstered furniture, automotive seating, pillows, apparel, bras, and sports equipment.
Most mattress advertising attempts to differentiate mattress brands based on the type of PU foam used, its performance characteristics, how it has been layered, sliced, glued, combined with springs, or ’cut’ with other ingredients.
Unless PU foam is treated with chemical fire retardants (FRs), it burns faster and hotter than a marshmallow at a camp fire. It is so flammable, firefighters sometimes refer to PU foam as “solid gasoline”.
Firefighters know better than most that petrochemical fire retardants(FRs) cause human tragedy. The presence of FRs and associated toxic chemicals in our beds and throughout our homes harms more than you and your family.
Over the decades, health authorities and industrial hygienists have been inconsistent and slow to limit human exposure to petroleum derived chemicals. They face institutional inertia, push back from petrochemical industry lobbyists,