Do you really understand your mattress?
Many people are shocked to find that most mattresses contain toxic foam and mixed fibers. Moreover, most of them are added with chemical flame retardants that emit exhaust gas, which can cause a series of health problems.

Traditional mattress flame retardants contain the following chemicals:

Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDE): This substance was used in mattresses before 2004. However, since these chemicals have been identified as poisoning the liver, thyroid and nervous system, they have been abandoned by mattress companies.

Boric acid: Known to have carcinogenic effects.

Melamine (formaldehyde) resin: The US Environmental Protection Agency believes that under long-term exposure, formaldehyde may be a human carcinogen.

If you ask a merchant to send a mattress, they will usually tell you to "ventilate the room" after laying it out. Maybe you would call me delusional, but I think that after the mattress is delivered, the bedroom shouldn’t be like it has just been painted. We thought that once the smell in the house was gone, it was very safe. However, this is not the case.

Sometimes, kindness (flame retardants) is more likely to cause health problems. The impact on adults is worrying, and the impact on children is even more serious.

The famous scientist and chemistry expert James Sprot believes that although there are many causes of sudden infant death, one of the most important effects is the poisonous gas produced by the baby mattress. He asserted that since the early 1950s, compounds containing phosphorus, arsenic, and antimony have been added to mattresses for use as flame retardants and other purposes. The fungus that is usually produced on the bed will interact with these chemicals to produce toxic gases. Once the baby inhales the deadly poisonous gas, the central nervous system shuts down, causing breathing and heart function to stop. Babies are poisoned to death by these gases even without waking up and without any struggle. Moreover, according to Dr. Sprot’s research, routine autopsy cannot find the typical symptoms of infant poisoning.

This is very dangerous. This is calling us to pay attention to details and things we are accustomed to. One thing I mentioned is that we not only inhale these substances, but also absorb them. It is important to understand that if you smell something, it will be on your skin and in your body. (The next time someone makes you smell smoke, it will probably scare you. I'm sorry, it's true!) However, we will adapt to the smell quickly. Regardless of whether the smell is good or bad, the sense of smell will quickly lower our response to smell. So people often say, stop and smell the roses, because if you don’t smell them, you won’t notice them soon.

As we said before, it doesn’t mean safety if you can’t smell it. So, as we discussed before, choosing a mattress that is not threatening is very important. Like old shoes and old clothes, mattresses are usually reused. However, a study published in the British Medical Journal showed that the probability of sudden death after repeated use of a baby mattress is three times that of the original. This is because no matter who sleeps on the mattress, the skin cells of the body will fall off and become an organic matter, leading to the decomposition of microorganisms. Eventually, microbes trigger the emission of poisons, quietly posing a huge threat to health.

In 1994, New Zealand implemented a very important plan across the country to protect children and prevent sudden infant death syndrome. Health care experts across New Zealand have learned that astonishing data show that exhaust-gas mattresses are terrible. They strongly recommend that parents put a cheap gas shield on the newborn's mattress. In the next 20 years, there was no report of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome of more than 200,000 New Zealand babies sleeping on mattress guards. Since the mattress guard was activated, there have been 1,020 cases of sudden infant death syndrome, but none of them have a mattress guard.

You will see that when you choose a mattress for yourself or your loved ones, you can't just look at it casually. Of course, you may have 37.7 layers of foam on your bed and a mysterious pillow that sticks to you like a bodysuit. But that is just a decoration. How long can your mattress last? Is your mattress made of potentially toxic materials?