Is Chinese Memory Foam Safe?
Back to Articles | Next Article »
Chinese manufacturers are known for two things: a virtually never ending flood of low-cost products and questionable attention to quality control. That’s a nice way of saying many of their products have been found to be tainted with harmful chemicals.
In the bedding world, you will pay a premium for quality there is no doubt. And that makes cheap knock-offs found at big box retailers an appealing choice for many. But is it a wise choice?
With a number of serious product recalls in recent years that spanned several industries from drywall to toys and baby formula, Chinese manufacturing isn’t exactly sporting a positive track record. And the country’s bedding industry is no exception.
Back in 2007, a Dutch retailer chain was stung by the recall of more than 1,300 Chinese-made foam mattresses because they were believed to have been sprayed with a toxic insecticide. So it is clear the industry has been compromised.
Research has shown that most Chinese manufacturers experience about a 40 percent spoilage rate on visco-elastic memory foam. And that may be the least of it, as some overseas manufacturers are using crude techniques and harmful chemicals in the production process. That combined with lax quality control measures that are endemic throughout the country means consumers virtually have no way of even knowing what chemicals were used. But speculation abounds that cancer-causing materials are present in Chinese manufacturing of memory foam products.
The vast array in quality of the Memory Foam mattress products being pumped out by Chinese exporters makes finding a safe and quality-borne product a mighty difficult quest indeed.
Buying Memory Foam mattresses manufactured in the United States is a different story all together due to stringent quality control standards not present in China. American memory foam mattresses are almost always completely comprised of pure visco-elastic memory foam. In the Chinese manufacturing process there is speculation cancer-causing materials are present.
