ISPA: States should protect against renovated mattresses
Used products can be hazardous to health
David Perry -- Furniture Today, April 28, 2008
ALEXANDRIA, Va. — The International Sleep Products Assn. is calling on state regulators to step up their efforts to protect consumers from renovated mattresses that it says are potentially hazardous to their health.
“Illegal renovated mattresses must be eliminated,” ISPA said in a statement that casts a harsh light on the practice of renovating mattresses.
“It is a consumer’s right to know whether the mattress he or she buys is made from materials that other consumers have used,” said ISPA CEO Dick Doyle. “Consumers should have confidence that the product they are buying is clean and sanitary. ISPA urges all states to require that mattress renovators sanitize and properly tag their products so that consumers can clearly distinguish them from new mattresses.”
ISPA said that for almost 100 years, state bedding laws have helped protect consumers from companies that use dirty materials in their mattresses. While about 30 states have such laws, “their active enforcement has unfortunately languished in some cases,” ISPA said.
Mattress renovators sew a new outer fabric cover on top of a used and often soiled mattress, the association said. Too often, the renovator makes no effort to clean or sanitize the underlying used materials, and offers the renovated product to unsuspecting consumers as a new mattress, according to ISPA.
A recent “Dateline NBC” story described the health and safety risks the products can pose to consumers, ISPA said.
ISPA is calling on states that already regulate renovated mattresses to “actively enforce their existing mattress labeling and sanitization laws.” States that don’t regulate renovated mattresses “should set rigorous rules to attack this problem,” ISPA said.
The trade association said that “unscrupulous parties” are often reselling unsanitary and unsafe mattresses that can harm the consumer in a variety of ways. Too often, ISPA said, renovated mattresses contain bedbugs, allergens such as dust mite feces, mold spores, bodily fluids and even traces of human waste. And renovated mattresses “seldom meet” the new federal mattress flammability standard, ISPA said.
ISPA commended states “that are vigilant in policing mattress renovators,” but singled out two states for criticism. It said that New York has enacted a bedding law but has yet to issue regulations to implement its own requirements. And it said that Maryland, which recently repealed its bedding law, “is another example where local regulators are not protecting the public from unscrupulous mattress renovators.”
“ISPA finds this development in Maryland to be deeply troubling, given the significant and persistent problems posed by renovated mattresses,” Doyle said. “Stronger state enforcement will alert consumers when they are buying a product that has been used by other consumers. This will allow consumers to better protect themselves and their families.”
When shopping for a mattress, consumers should buy from a reputable mattress retailer, ask the retailer if the mattress contains any used materials, and look for a label certifying that the bed meets the new federal FR standard, ISPA said. Mattresses that have that label are usually not refurbished, the group said.
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