OhSoSleepy
Joined: Oct 24, 2010
Points: 2
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latex cores: How natural is "Natural"?
Original Message Oct 24, 2010 6:47 pm |
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I'm interested in the natural latex cores this company has for my own bed building project: How is "Natural" defined with latex beds though? With food, a product can be labeled "USDA Organic" if it is 95% organic and can be labeled "Made with organic ingredients" if it is 70% organic, but forfeit the USDA label. Failing that, the merchant can label any ingredients on the back as organic, but must not have "Organic" displayed on the front of the box. So with mattresses, I'm guessing their is a similar loop hole with listing ingredients and proportions and I'm wondering how much synthetics can be used in a latex mattress advertised as being rubber tree derived and still be called "Natural" My goal is to avoid a product claimed to be "natural" but also made with synthetics such as SBR (styrene butadiene rubber), since when you are sensitive, even a small amount is bad. I'm not concerned about the chemicals used in the vulcanization process (sulfur, zinc oxide and what not) nor do I wring my hands as to weather the rubber tree plantation is certified organic - I'm just trying to avoid the petrol.
This message was modified Oct 24, 2010 by OhSoSleepy
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sandman
 
Joined: Oct 15, 2009
Points: 926
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Re: latex cores: How natural is "Natural"?
Reply #1 Oct 24, 2010 7:44 pm |
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It looks like it is 100% natural latex (no SBR). Other chemicals might be used in the processing. Are you looking at the dunlop or talalay? I think the dunlop is by Latex Green, which is good and Latex International makes the talalay (also good). Note that they also sell blended latex on the website, so they are making a distinction between blended and 100% natural. The latex International website says it isOeko-Tex certified, free of harmful chemicals. The same would probably be true for the Latex Green (if not better). Certified Healthy LI’s process does NOT use solvents. It does NOT damage the ozone layer. We do not have to use scrubbers or external filtration as we do not emit harmful elements into the air. In fact, Latex International’s Talalay latex is certified by Oeko-Tex (Europe’s highest environmental consumer product standard) to be free of harmful substances or chemicals. |
Phoenix
Joined: Oct 3, 2010
Points: 809
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Re: latex cores: How natural is "Natural"?
Reply #2 Oct 24, 2010 7:47 pm |
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Their blended Talalay comes from Radium, Their 100% natural comes from Latex International (I have read that this could contain 2% SBR but I have not confirmed this either way). They mostly sell Latex green Dunlop (both the organic version and the 100% natural version) but they also have Latexco Dunlop Phoenix
This message was modified Oct 24, 2010 by Phoenix
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sandman
Joined: Oct 15, 2009
Points: 926
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Re: latex cores: How natural is "Natural"?
Reply #3 Oct 24, 2010 8:30 pm |
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Their blended Talalay comes from Radium, Their natural (which I believe is 98%) comes from Latex International. They mostly sell Latex green Dunlop (both the organic version and the 100% natural version) but they also have Latexco Dunlop Phoenix So, their 100% natural is really 98% natural? Or is the "latex" part 100% natural and there are 2% other ingredients (not SBR)? The LI website says 100% natural, but does not really define what that means. I assume no synthetic latex, but it is possible some other ingredients are used to make it work.
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Phoenix
Joined: Oct 3, 2010
Points: 809
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Re: latex cores: How natural is "Natural"?
Reply #4 Oct 24, 2010 9:59 pm |
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I read a reference (not from the LI website) that said that even their 100% natural Talalay latex uses about 2% SBR. It seems I can no longer find it (laughing). I will post it here when I find it and change the post above as well until it is confirmed. There is also a few percent of other "non latex" ingredients either as part of the latex itself or used in manufacturing. In the meantime, here is an interesting article from the PFA which is an association of polyfoam manufacturers which pretty clearly shows the superiority of Latex over poly in most categories. Coming from the latex "competition" I thought it was pretty interesting. http://www.pfa.org/intouch/pdf/v8n1.pdf Phoenix
This message was modified Oct 24, 2010 by Phoenix
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Phoenix
Joined: Oct 3, 2010
Points: 809
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Re: latex cores: How natural is "Natural"?
Reply #5 Oct 24, 2010 11:37 pm |
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Aha, I found it .... it came from one of the sleepez sites here http://www.sleepezbeds.com/latex-buyers-guide.html and the part I read is this "Talalay Natural latex is a blend of approximately 98% natural and 2% synthetic. The 2% synthetic is needed as a bonding agent in the "talalay" process, and obviously does not alter the fact that it is classified as 100% natural." Some of this information is either not accurate or no longer accurate (such as Radium producing natural Talalay. Dunlopillo was the other company producing natural Talalay) but at that time at least he seemed to have cause to believe that the LI natural Talalay had about 2% SBR. This was the only reference I have seen about natural Talalay having any SBR content. Phoenix |
OhSoSleepy
Joined: Oct 24, 2010
Points: 2
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Re: latex cores: How natural is "Natural"?
Reply #7 Oct 25, 2010 2:56 pm |
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OK, thanks for the great info! I think I can feel safe making a purchase from a LI product at least. Still, I'm sadly unsurprised that a product labeled "100% natural" can have a few lbs of SBR in it, depending on the manufacturer. Any merchants reading this who do not use SBR in their product might want to say so. Trying to avoid products containing petrol, formaldehyde or trichloroethylene is quite a archeology dig these days. Even food has it's FD&C dyes sourced from coal tar, not to mention saccharin derived from petrol and more petrol from BHA and BHT. Then of course, rancid vegetable oil in everything and mislabeling of "trans-fat free" products which can allow trans-fats by the gram or just contain loads of mono and di-glycerides due to label-law loopholes. Small wonder auto-immune diseases aren't more prevalent.
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Phoenix
Joined: Oct 3, 2010
Points: 809
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Re: latex cores: How natural is "Natural"?
Reply #8 Oct 25, 2010 3:14 pm |
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Just for reference too ... a blended latex product can still have an Oeko-Tex certification (Nothing that they consider harmful either through contact or inhalation depending on the classification). The LI blended latex is one of them. The LI natural (Talalay), and the Latex green natural or organic (Dunlop) would both be free from SBR. It is also likely that most of the reputable latex producers that label their product as 100% natural would also contain no SBR. Some retailers and/or manufacturers do third party testing that goes well beyond USDA organic or Oeko-Tex in terms of threshhold levels of harmful chemicals etc. and most of these either do (or at least should) release these testing results to the public. For those so inclined, this site is the "purest and cleanest" latex mattress I have found. They also have a lot of good information about issues surrounding the "organic" label and testing for VOC's and other harmful ingredients in general. http://www.purerest.com/ Phoenix
This message was modified Oct 25, 2010 by Phoenix
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