Word: mattress
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After Cecile Langelier started experiencing sleep-depriving aches from her new gardening ventures at home in Corning, Calif., last year, she and her partner Dennis Nelson decided the best balm might be a better mattress. Little did they know it would be made out of natural latex. "There was a support and softness that can only be described as being in my mother's arms," says Langelier, a former organizational-development consultant. "It was like lying down on a cloud...
...cost of this piece of paradise--a king-size mattress manufactured by Vivètique under its Natural Bedroom brand, which the couple bought last fall in Greenfeet Natural Home Store, in nearby Chico--was just less than $2,160, including the wood-slatted foundation. But in addition to sticker shock was an even bigger eye opener. "I didn't know latex was a natural material," said Langelier...
Sleep, of all things, is going natural. According to the International Sleep Products Association, sales of mattresses and foundations shipped by the U.S. mattress industry are increasing more than 10% annually, and totaled $6.396 billion at wholesale in 2005. The noninnerspring mattress segment is showing even more strength, and grew 28% between 2004 and 2005. It's clear that natural-latex mattresses (the terms natural latex and natural rubber are often used interchangeably) are coming into their own. "The latex category, including synthetic blends, is creating a strong buzz in the industry," says Dave Perry, executive editor of trade publication...
Despite its better-known identification with gloves and condoms, latex starts its life cycle as a substance collected from Hevea brasiliensis, better known as the rubber tree. Vivètique in Arcadia, Calif., gets the natural-latex mattress cores primarily from its supplier in Sri Lanka and finishes them with a cover of quilted wool and cotton. "More than half of the inquiries we get are from consumers who don't want synthetic fire retardants in their mattresses," says Scott Carwile, who co-owns Vivètique with his brother Steve. "More people are doing their homework...
...children eat three times a day. She is also beginning to benefit from a government program called "Mothers of the Barrio," which gives stipends to poor mothers with handicapped children. She will use the extra funds to help pay for anti-convulsive drugs and a new mattress for her daughter, who has Down syndrome. "Thanks to my president, now I can say that I'm going to buy a new mattress for my daughter and I'm going to give her a better way of living," Machado said...