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Hi, I'm new to Reddit, but made an account because I am completely desperate.
Three months ago, I received a defective viscoelastic (in english memory foam, I think) mattress that emitted a strong chemical smell. Because of the smell—and the fact that this was not the mattress I had ordered—it was removed from my home (i returned it) after about a week.
After the mattress was gone, the smell changed from "new/chemical" to "smoke+new/chemical". Since I also experienced persistent physical symptoms such as coughing, headaches, mouth tingling, tongue itching, etc., I contacted the National Toxicology by e-mail. They told me that I might have been exposed to toluene diisocyanate at levels above 2,5 ppm (the occupational limit is 0.02 ppm), along with other compounds like plasticizers and formaldehyde-based adhesives commonly used in mattress manufacturing.
Since the smell did not go away, after a month, I had all my furtniture removed from the room. Unfortunately, moving the furniture left a trail of odor throughout the house which lasted like 2 month, and when the furniture was stored in the garage, the smell also got into my cars.
**Timeline:**
* Day 0: Mattress arrives.
* \~1 week: Mattress removed.
* \~1 month: Furniture left alone in the room, ventilating and cleaning daily for hours.
* \~1 month later: Furniture removed; smell spreads throughout the house and into the cars.
* Ongoing: I have been ventilating daily for 3 months. The smell still persists in the room and cars.
I have been ventilating all day and cleaning like crazy. The room is now empty, but the rancid/chemical smoke smell won’t go away. Even all my cars smell.
The mattress company has completely ignored the issue, claiming that since I no longer have the mattress, the warranty doesn’t apply, and that their mattresses “are not made with, nor contain, chemicals harmful to health.”
Do you know what could be happening or how I could clean this? I’m living a nightmare and don’t know what else to do. I don’t even know who to contact nor understand how this can have happened. The mattress was in my room for like 5 days, but the smell and headaches were really strong.