Memory foam resists dust mites better than some other pillow and mattress fillers. Dust mites are cause for concern if you or your loved ones suffer from asthma or allergies. Dust is one of the most highly allergenic substances in a home; much of the dust is composed of dead skin and fecal matter from dust mites. These mites thrive on beds and bedding, living off flakes of dead skin, which is abundant on a bed since so much time is spent there. Memory foam, used for pillows, mattress and mattress toppers, is somewhat resistant to dust mites since the material is dense enough to make the living conditions unfavorable for these tiny creatures. On the Surface Memory foam is generally considered more resistant to dust mites than some other pillow and mattress materials because the mites cannot burrow in as easily as they can with fluffy materials such as fiberfill. The density of foam provides little room inside for mites to thrive, so they tend to stay on the surface instead. Mite Prevention Since memory foam itself is not washable -- it may disintegrate or deteriorate from excessive moisture -- a mite-proof covering helps keep the mites off foam itself.
These covers are made of fabric woven so tightly it is hard for the mites to burrow through. The covers are also machine washable. Mite-Free Maintenance Vacuum the memory foam with a vacuum cleaner that collects debris in a water canister, rather than in a bag or debris area fitted with an air filter, as the filter-style vacuums blow dust around the room, potentially exacerbating allergy symptoms. Wash all bedding at least once a week in hot water to kill dust mites. All-Around Prevention Keeping the bedroom as dust-free as possible cuts down on the chances of dust mites getting on the memory foam or bedding. Keep humidity in the room low by using a dehumidifier or air conditioner, as dust mites thrive in high humidity. Swap out carpeting for wood flooring, if possible, as wood is easier to clean and does not trap dust and debris. When dusting, use a damp cloth to wipe down surfaces, as the moisture helps keep the dust from simply floating to another area of the room. References Fox News Magazine: Memory Foam: A Better Night's Sleep?
National Institute of Environmental Health Services: Dust MitesOhio State University Extension Fact Sheet: House Dust MitesThe Allergy Store: Memory Foam Pillows: Are They for You? Photo Credits Creatas Images/Creatas/Getty Images Suggest a CorrectionOne of the big selling points of Tempurpedic mattresses is that they're dust mite and allergen resistant. But are Tempur the only memory foam bed maker to make such claims? And more importantly, are these claims true? Are there any other health claims manufacturers make? According to the University of Chicago Asthma Center, "Dust mites are very tiny creatures (microscopic, or just barely visible) that live in the dust in people's homes. They are present both in visible dust (under the bed or behind the couch, for example) and in soft places like pillows, mattresses, blankets, and stuffed animals". Most problems with dust mites and mattresses are directly related to the skin we slough off our bodies which is a natural process and no bed, innerspring or otherwise, can prevent.
This is the starting point in understanding the connection between dust mites, Tempurpedic mattresses and other visco memory mattresses. What most people don't know is that dust-mites also feed on organic fibres like cotton which is why a mattress made of wool, for example, would provide a secondary source of food for dustmites. According to a study published in European Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology in June 2002, the risk of finding dust mites is four times higher in foam mattresses compared to spring mattresses and eight times higher for the foam mattresses without cover. While this study does not specifically include Tempur memory foam mattresses, it helps us investigate the "dust-mite free" claim. A Tempurpedic foam bed is made of open-cell viscoelastic foam. The open cells pass air to adjoining cells when you lie down on the mattress and slowly take in air when you stand up. All visco elastic memory foam mattresses, in fact, are made of open cells.
Unfortunately, this open-cell structure is prone to taking in large numbers of dust mites. Conventional foam beds made of closed-cells also allow dust mites in, just not as many as memory mattresses do. The only way to prevent allergy-provoking dust mites in your mattress is to use dust-mite resistant encasings and covers but even they aren't 100% effective. This is why "dust-mite free" claims are a fallacy. No memory foam mattress is free of mites. It is true, however, that its extremely dense structure makes it more difficult for dust mites to nest and feed. Foam, however, be it the visco elastic kind or not, be it from Tempurpedic or not, does not promote dust mite growth because, unlike natural fibres, is not a food source in itself. This is what mite-resistant means. Tempur memory foam beds don't stop mites feeding on your dead skin cells, it just means that they are not a feeding source in themselves. They are, therefore, indeed made of a naturally resistant material to dust mites but so are all foam beds, even latex beds.
The Tempur-Pedic website makes the following statement: While a Tempur-Pedic bed is indeed allergy and dust-mite resistant, the fact is that any foam mattress is also dust-mite and allergy-resistant. Again, this does not mean they are mite-free or that they stop these bugs from feeding on dead skin cells. For many people the idea of dead mites inside their Tempurpedic Swedish foam bed is repulsive. Many companies, including Tempurpedic, have come up with bed covers that minimize these contaminants from being able to penetrate into the mattress. However, these have been shown to be questionably effective. Bottom line, dust mite free claims for a Tempurpedic bed or any other visco memory foam bed, for that matter, has good marketing value but not much else in relation to other foam beds. Before deciding on this type of pillow, know that there is only one proven benefit of memory foam. Whether it's enough to ensure a comfortable sleep, only you can tell.Dust mites are everywhere.
They are true survivors, able to make it in virtually all climates and at any altitude. They thrive, however, in our homes, especially bedrooms, enjoying the humidity generated by all the breathing, perspiring, and drooling we do at night and feeding on all the skin flakes we produce. For these tiny creatures, we’re living, breathing humidifier-refrigerator-landlords who charge extremely competitive rates. Why wouldn’t they infest us? In the last couple weeks we’ve taken a look at sleep posture, how to improve it, and modern bedding. Today we’ll take a closer look at your mattress, investigating what may be lurking inside and what you can do about it. In “Toward a Comparable Developmental Ecology of Human Sleep,” Carol Worthman presents a potential motivation for the relative “minimization of bedding” among hunter-gatherers, apart from logistical, technological, or climatic limitations: the avoidance of allergenic dust mites and other parasitic bed-mates. All that cloying, billowing fluffiness we like to ensconce ourselves in provides room (and even board) to vast numbers of dimunitive, multi-legged squatters.
Our bedding, you might say, can play host to a host of parasites, especially if you live as many traditional hunter-gatherers live (and lived) – in close, often direct contact with the natural environment. Worthman mentions an increase in asthma rates immediately following the introduction of Western-style blankets to the highland tribes of Papua New Guinea, presumably caused by the hordes of dust mites finding new purchase in the blankets. Dust mite detritus is highly allergenic to humans. It can trigger asthma in people, and common side effects of exposure to dust mite allergens include itchiness, red or watering eyes, eczema flare-ups, runny nose, and clogging of the lungs. These are your basic, garden-variety allergenic symptoms, but they’re no less annoying or frustrating. They can drive a person up a wall and really hamper quality of life; I for one know that when it comes to itchy eyes, nose, or throat, I turn into a huge complainer. Maybe it’s because colds, sniffles, and allergies are relatively rare since embarking on this Primal journey, and maybe I’ve simply grown soft and unable to deal with what most folks think are inevitable, “just deal with it” ailments, but either way, they’re no fun.
No one should have to deal with this stuff. Many of us do, though, because we enjoy the creature comforts of modern living. Now, before you toss out your mattresses, burn your bedding and renounce your Tempurpedic, there are other ways to deal with dust mites. It’s not the actual dust mite that bugs us (yes, pun intended); it’s the allergenic refuse that it creates. Experts suggest around 18% to 30% of Americans are sensitive to dust mite detritus, so habitual cleaning/removal of the offensive material should help us avoid the allergenic reactions. A few companies offer either intensive ultraviolet-C light treatment or high-powered steam treatment to kill the mites, followed by a vigorous vacuuming to remove the dead mites and their waste material. Although corroborating research is scant, it seems plausbile that ultraviolet light and high-powered steaming would kill a large amount of near-microscopic arachnids. And vacuums certainly work. In fact, weekly, thorough vacuuming of your house is pretty effective at removing dust mite droppings, and it can even take care of the mites themselves.
Do the carpet, the drapes, the furniture, and textiles, all of which can house mites, making sure to dust everything beforehand (consider using a damp cloth, instead of a dry duster, which often just spreads the dust around). One study found that while deep vacuuming was effective at reducing allergens, deep vacuuming coupled with steam cleaning resulted in longer-lasting reductions. Some more do-it-yourself options: install special zippered covers for all your bedding (sheets, mattress, pillows, comforter, etc); regular hot water washings of sheets (be sure to use hot water – 140 °F or 60 °C is most effective – and maintain a strict laundering schedule, as research shows that “compliance” is often more important than laundry method), casings, and adjacent stuffed animals; conversion to hardwood floors; and maintain a tidy room free of excessive clutter. Since dust mites are attracted to humidity, lowering your humidity may help keep the population at bay. Furry pets can also provide food for dust mites.
While I think the benefits of a good, loyal pet by your side outweigh any threat posed by dust mites, it’s something to keep in mind. Consider extra vacuuming, at least. Last week’s bedding post also garnered questions about off-gassing – also known as out-gassing – which describes the slow, gradual release of a gas that is contained, absorbed, or present in a material. In our case, off-gassing refers to the presumably toxic/potentially harmful release of chemical gases from bedding. Flame retardants, especially, have been targeted as potential dangers. Research is scant, and a definitive answer cannot be given, but we do know that new mattresses often give off powerful “chemical” odors for a the first few weeks, especially in enclosed rooms, and there are plenty of anecdotal reports of illness, dizziness, brain fuzziness, among other negative effects, correlating positively with the arrival of the “new mattress smell.” Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDE) are effective flame-retardants.
When flame is exposed to a material treated with PBDE, bromine is released that robs the air of the oxygen necessary for fire. They are also pretty effective at disrupting hormone levels in the thyroid gland, affecting neuronal pathways, reducing fertility, and impacting the regular brain development of young children and infants. Until quite recently, many foam mattresses were made using PBDE as the retardant. Flame-retardants are required by law to be incorporated into mattresses (although retardant-less mattresses are made available to those with doctors’ notes proving they have an intensely negative reaction to the chemicals contained therein), and PBDE was simply one of the most effective and readily available. Luckily, most governmental bodies have banned the use of PBDE. The EU no longer allows it, and certain states, including California, Washington, and Maine, have instituted state-wide bans on the sale of products containing PBDE. That’s all well and good, but the stuff is persistent.
“No matter where we’ve looked – whether it’s the Arctic or an urban center or the Antarctic, [PBDEs] are everywhere,” says Michael Ikonomou, a research scientist with Canada’s Oceans’ Institute of Ocean Sciences. It shows up in human breast milk, especially US breast milk, along with the infants and tots who consume it. Altough, as Ikonomou points out, PBDE is everywhere, perhaps the most concentrated source of exposure to it comes when we sleep, for six to eight hours each night, on mattresses imbued with PBDE. The longer we own the mattress and the more it breaks down, the more PBDE is released, is off-gassed. Avoid mattresses manufactured before 2005, unless the manufacturers specify they’re PBDE-free.Avoid anything that’s made with polyurethane foam. That’s probably full of PBDE. Toss out old mattresses, especially if the actual foam is exposed and beginning to degrade. Most mattress manufacturers are wising up and curtailing the use of PBDE, but always do your own research before purchasing a mattress, especially the memory foam variety.
A potential problem remains, of course: we still require flame retardants in mattresses, so companies have simply moved on to a new retardant known as antimony trioxide. Antimony trioxide is a known carcinogen, but most research has been conducted on miners, smelters, and other professions where people are actually inhaling the stuff. It remains to be seen whether sleeping on mattresses that use antimony trioxide is harmful, but in the end, you’re still dealing with a toxin. You could go always go for natural latex mattresses, which are naturally flame-resistant, as many of my readers have, but then you’re dealing with the looming specter of latex allergy, which some sources claim affects up to 12% of the population. Again, I’d suggest you seriously consider tossing your old mattresses, since we know that PBDE is definitely bad stuff (especially for the young ones and the mothers, who should probably be more vigilant about bedding choices), and make cleaning/vacuuming to remove detritus a regular habit.