Natural Organic Mattress

What actually defines an organic mattress? Does it have to be made from totally 100% organic materials to be qualified as an organic mattress? Well, when the term organic mattress was first coined, no one actually able to define the mattress whether it is an organic product or not. We can’t simply define the product by following each of its words’ definitions. It is hard actually to fully understand the concept behind organic mattress. Since people these days are aware of the importance of living in a healthy environment including sleeping on an organic mattress, an association was established to help in defining what is considered as organic mattress and later when the association has been recognized by the country, any organic mattress produced have to follow the guidelines provided by them to be qualified as organic mattress.

The association is commonly known as NAOMI. “NAOMI” is actually an acronym for National Association of Organic Mattress Industry. All mattress manufacturers that are the members of Naomi organization should comply with Naomi’s standard to produce organic mattresses. So far there are eleven guidelines laid down by the National Association of Organic Mattress Industry (NAOMI) for a mattress to be certified by the organization as organic. If any of these guidelines is not followed, then the mattress is considered as “normal mattress” and cannot be called organic mattress. This is where the term "Naomi organic mattress" being coined to differentiate the differences between certified organic mattress and none certified organic matterss.

Guidelines to Qualify an Organic Mattress as an Organic Product

The first thing that a mattress manufacturer should ensure is the mattress has to be free from any synthetic fabrics or fibers. To understand what synthetic fabrics are we should first understand what synthetic fibers are. Synthetic fibers are normally produced from synthetic materials such as petrochemicals. There are also synthetic fibers that are manufactured from natural cellulose such as rayon, nylon, polyester, and zylon. Therefore we can define synthetic fabrics as fabrics that are made from synthetic fibers. To process the synthetic fibers to be available as fabrics, more chemicals are added and therefore the end products contain more chemicals. In other words, any organic mattress to be certified as “organic mattress” should be free from these types of fabrics and fibers.

The second guideline is related to the first guideline where if fabric is used to manufacture the mattress, the fabric used cannot be treated with any sort of toxic chemicals. Chemicals such as “phlates” which I have many times explained in previous posts are chemicals that are toxic and dangerous to health and therefore cannot be used in producing organic mattress. Some companies may claim that the chemicals that they used in organic mattress production are “good” chemicals and not that toxic since they were classified by scientists as low-level chemicals. If you heard such claims, you should avoid from buying that so-called “organic mattress” as the National Association of Organic Mattress Industry has clearly said that none of toxic chemicals should be used in treating the fabrics used to produce organic mattress.

If the organic mattresses produces are using wools, then the organization has outlined another rule to qualify a mattress as organic where the wools should always be from sheep that are have been raised organically. The sheep are not supposed to be fed with chemical-made foods they are breed in chemical-free environments. Later we will go into discussions to check why wools are used in producing organic mattresses.

There are also other rules laid out to qualify the wools to be used in producing organic mattress. Just like the fabrics, the wool used should not be treated with any sort of chemical substances. Therefore the production of the wools has to be from factories that are not producing other chemical-based products such as polyester. Furthermore, the wools used to produce chemical-free organic mattress have to be tested first to ensure that they are free from arsenic and lead. In short, no chemicals should be used in any circumstances. I can see now that this could be the reason why some mattress companies are not producing organic mattresses since the standards and the rules to be complied to are really tough to be precisely followed and practiced.

Other rules that I have left out are more detailed descriptions on what an organic mattress should be made from. I can safely say here that to ensure that an organic mattress is really is an organic product, everything about it should be following organic standards. Starting from the selection of the materials to be used to processing each of the materials and then processing and combining all of the materials, none of them should involve the usage of chemicals. If there is, then the mattress is no longer qualified as organic. It should be sold and quoted as normal mattress.

However, there are exceptions to these rules. Materials such as the thread and the metal springs used in supporting the mattress to be firm and solid have no specific guidelines anywhere in this world to qualify them as being organic or not. Therefore these materials can freely be used in producing organic mattresses. Unless one day someone managed to create organic springs, then maybe for a mattress to be qualified as organic, the mattress should only used organic springs. That may sound funny today but hey who knows, hundreds of years ago no one would believe you that you can speak to someone thousands of kilometers away from you!

As I see it, an organic mattress is supposed to be made from only natural materials. This is my understanding and although it is hard to find one mattress that fit my criteria, I have to be patient to finally find one so that I don't have to feel guilty for not providing my family the best products to protect their health and their life. I don't mind spending thousands to achieve that goal as long as they got the best from me and that's my aim; to provide the best for them.

These days, you are more than likely to stumble into stores that are selling comfort organic cotton mattresses. Either you are in Portland or somewhere else, the possibility is there to find a mattress store. As I have extensively outlined to you what should qualify as organic mattress, you should now be able to identify a mattress to be organic or not. At least, you have some basic ideas on what questions you should ask the mattress sales rep. Isn’t it fun to see the sales rep who looks like Katrina Halili runs to her sales supervisor to get confirmation that the mattress you asked does not contain any phlates? It will be funnier if you know that she was actually asking about the meaning of phlates lol.

That’s all for now and if you are interested to find more information about Organic Mattress in Michigan, you may read that post. I will elaborate more about all organic mattresses either by updating previous posts or through new posts. If you have any inquiries, please do not hesitate to leave your comments. However, I recommend you to read more about mattresses and organic mattresses either from reading “mattress blog” or join any forums that talk about choosing the right mattress for your bed.

Note : From what I have learned from my friends, it seems like the so-called NAOMI association does not have any other members apart from the site who produced the standards to certify a mattress as organic. As far as I am concerned, no one has yet to take the initiative to unify all of the organic mattress manufacturers into one organization.