Just the other day a customer called one of our stores asking all sorts of questions about latex, how it was made, and about it’s hypoallergenic properties. This customer seemed genuinely concerned about all of the different types of information she was receiving from different companies. In an effort to reduce the stress of hunting down answers regarding the process used to make latex mattresses I am going to illustrate it right here;
1. Natural Latex comes from the rubber tree.
2. The milky sap from the rubber tree is whipped into a foam.
3. The whip is poured into a mold.
4. A vacuum is used to remove air bubbles within the liquid foam.
5. The foam is frozen using CO2.
6. The foam is then heated.
Natural Latex is labeled as being 100% hypoallergenic which is not necessarily true. Numerous studies have been conducted regarding natural rubber latex since the ’80′s. Predominently due to an increase in latex allergies spurred by the use of latex gloves in hospital settings. The general concensus is that natural rubber latex becomes an allergen through the manufacturing process. Most studies have been conducted using latex gloves but not latex mattresses. The cornstarch on latex gloves absorbs allergens and releases them into the air which then results in aeroallergens attaching to clothing and on hard surfaces. People with allergies and sensitivities to bananas, pears, kiwis, and avocados appear to more sensitive to natural rubber latex allergies as they share a similar polypeptide. Everywhere I go on the internet looking for information on latex mattresses there are statements exclaiming that natural latex is 100% hypoallergenic. This may not be the case though. Even though mattresses do not have cornstarch all over them to kick up allergens into the air, unpowdered latex gloves have also been found to cause allergic reactions, the percentage of the population with this type of allergy is very low and hypersensitivity is even lower. Not enough studies have been conducted on the general public outside the use of natural latex gloves, i.e. latex mattresses have not been studied for their allergic properties, to conclusively state that latex mattresses are or are not hypoallergenic. You can review the information presented above by googling the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology and simply typing in latex within the journals website. Some interesting information that I stumbles upon was an article posted at this website http://checkbiotech.org/node/27610 . Apparently Russian dandelions may be a possible source of natural latex that truley is hypoallergenic to humans, this was a recent article so we can only hope that we will hear more of this in the time to come.
Note: I will be further invesitgating this issue to ensure that this is as accurate as I can make it.
