SSA launches safety, environmental mattress seal

Hopes to educate consumers about sleep set components

David Perry -- Furniture Today, August 4, 2010

This is the seal and label to be displayed on mattresses by companies participating in the Specialty Sleep Assn.’s new safety and environmental program.}

AT THE MARKET — The Specialty Sleep Assn. is launching a safety and environmental mattress seal and label program designed to better educate consumers about the components in their sleep sets.

The program, developed after more than a year of research and work, features mattress labels and seals on beds made by participating manufacturers.

Manufacturers pay a fee to the SSA to use the label and seal, which inform the consumer about the minimum environmental and safety compliance levels the mattress meets. Consumers who want more information can go to the SSA's website for additional details.

The SSA, an industry group based in Friant, Calif., shows here in World Market Center C-1350.

"Purchasing safe and environmentally friendly products is an overwhelming concern of consumers," said Dale Read, SSA president. "The Safety and Environmental Program represents the best way to finally deliver a clear message, through a revolutionary new label and education program, that the bedding industry is listening to that concern. The SSA is proud to have taken a leadership role in this important task of creating clarity in defining the broad terms being used to define environmentally friendly products as part of our ongoing mission to promote natural, healthier and safer sleep solutions for consumers."

There are two levels in the seal and label program.

To display the Level I seal, a manufacturer must meet all federal safety flammability requirements, provide a warranty for the product, meet all safety requirements for children's products if applicable, disclose material construction on a label, participate in an annual survey to identify carbon footprint issues, and meet standards set by the Montreal Protocol Act, when applicable, for the reduction or elimination of ozone-depleting substances.

The Level II seal requires all the above, and also that the manufacturer meet the standards in California Section 1350 testing for low VOC emissions, and to validate that the mattress's textile covering contains no harmful substances.

The SSA said several manufacturers have signed on and are displaying mattresses in compliance with the program here this week, although it did not name the manufacturers.

Read said the new seal and label program "is all about transparency and education. It represents a unification of suppliers, manufacturers and retailers around a set of environmental terms and definitions that will reduce confusion and bolster sales to consumers anxious to purchase environmentally friendly products."

He said the seal will "provide an industry standard for what is green, sustainable and natural," and will also give retail sales associates the opportunity to discuss mattress safety issues with consumers.

 

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