XRF test results for Naturepedic PLA stuffed pillow with organic cotton cover (no zipper)

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For those new to the Lead Safe Mama website:

Tamara Rubin is a multiple-federal-award-winning independent advocate for childhood Lead poisoning prevention and consumer goods safety, and a documentary filmmaker. She is also a mother of Lead-poisoned children (two of her sons were acutely Lead-poisoned in 2005).

• Tamara owns and runs Lead Safe Mama, LLC — a community collaborative woman-owned small business for childhood Lead poisoning prevention and consumer goods safety.
• Since 2009, Tamara has been using XRF technology (a scientific testing method) using the exact instrumentation employed by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission to test consumer goods for toxicants (specifically heavy metals — including Lead, Cadmium, Mercury, Antimony, and Arsenic).
• Since July of 2022, the work of Lead Safe Mama, LLC has been responsible for 5 product recalls (FDA and CPSC).
• All test results reported on this website are science-based, accurate, and replicable.
• Items that Lead Safe Mama, LLC reports on are tested multiple times to confirm the results published (for each component tested).

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Published: July 6, 2022

Naturepedic is a sponsor of the work of Lead Safe Mama, LLC. They came on board officially as a sponsor in 2021. Naturepedic was invited to become a sponsor of this work because they are the mattress brand that I have chosen for my family.

During my research to identify & select a producer of a high-quality all-natural-materials, Lead-free mattress for our family, I had encountered and tested their products (both using XRF technology and ALSO more extensively tested them out — by actually sleeping on them when visiting friends’ homes !) — and I fell in love with both their unique design & manufacturing approach to creating a safer, nontoxic choice – which I was specifically looking for for my children (who are already dealing with a body burden of heavy metals as a result of being acutely Lead-poisoned as babies), and also I fell in love with the luxurious comfort of sleeping on their mattresses! My children, my husband and I sleep on Naturepedic mattresses every night when we are home and this is the reason that (unlike other sites promoting every brand they can earn money promoting) this is the only mattress brand I promote on the site (since it is the only one I personally sleep on!).

I hadn’t yet tried out and tested (using XRF Technology) Naturepedic’s PLA (derived from sugarcane) pillow, and so I recently asked them to send me one so I could check it out — and test it using my XRF instrument and report the results here on the website for the Lead Safe Mama community.

As expected, the pillow is free of any heavy metals, and only tests positive for very low levels of Bromine and Iron. [Finding trace metals (very low levels of one or two metals) is expected and normal in products made of natural materials as – for example – things like cotton and wool will naturally absorb some metals (most often trace Iron, and sometimes other elements) from the environment.] I love how soft and squishy this pillow is, and I especially appreciate that the cover is organic cotton – and that the entire pillow is machine-washable! 

Here’s the description of this pillow from Naturepedic’s website:

“A luxurious fiber-based pillow that provides comfort in its simplest form.  Naturepedic PLA is derived entirely from sugarcane.  Outer cover is 100% certified organic cotton.”

For comparison, please check out this article with test results for a Tempurpedic brand pillow – which tested positive for Antimony and Lead!

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XRF Test Results for the Naturpedic PLA Pillow

Reading #1) Focus on sewn seam (fabric with thread)
60-second test

• Lead (Pb): non-detect
• Cadmium (Cd): non-detect
• Mercury (Hg): non-detect
• Arsenic (As): non-detect
• Bromine (Br): 28 +/- 3 ppm
• Chromium (Cr): non-detect
• Iron (Fe): 66 +/- 22 ppm
• No other metals detected in consumer goods mode.

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Reading #2) Focus on center of pillow (no stitching in testing window)
120-second test

• Lead (Pb): non-detect
• Cadmium (Cd): non-detect
• Mercury (Hg): non-detect
• Arsenic (As): non-detect
• Bromine (Br): non-detect
• Chromium (Cr): non-detect
• Iron (Fe): 97 +/- 26 ppm
• No other metals detected in consumer goods mode.