Foam mattresses manufactured between August 25 and September 29 have very abnormal levels of dichlorobenzene in toluene diisocyanate (TDI), the product to make the foam. The General Directorate for Competition, Consumption and Fraud Control (DGCCRF), which may involve a risk for consumers, therefore referred the matter to the National Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health Safety. (Anses) so that it can provide its expertise. While awaiting its report, manufacture and sale mattress foam were hung.
A production that is restarting
In the study, only the risk related to inhalation was taken into account. The risk from skin contact or ingestion exposure was considered minor. Regarding the absorption of dichlorobenzene, an endocrine disruptor potentially carcinogenic, ANSES has provided a reassuring reportclaiming that these mattresses do not pose a risk to the health of consumers, including on the basis of “worst-case scenarios”. Production can now resume, but mattresses made with this foam will not be able to benefit from the Oekotex or Certipur label. The Agency specifies, however, that it based its analyzes on data provided by BASF, the company that manufactures the TDI.
This decision therefore seems surprising since this substance has been banned since 2008 in moth repellants, insecticides and repellents and the concentrations found in mattresses could be greater than 150 times the acceptable limit! Que Choose recommends to postpone its purchase of mattresses until the absence of these foams is not guaranteed or to go to those with one of the two labels.
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