finding the safest wool pillow in the world

yes really

okay i've spent a bunch of hours researching this and my mom just told me to stop telling her about fabric certification standards so I'm resorting to my blog instead

As part of my quest to minimize exposure to pollutants, I wanted to find the safest wool pillow. It took like 8 hours of research and even more time in the trenches, but I've done it. I've found the safest wool pillow.

wait how could a pillow be unsafe

Sooo most pillows, mattresses, and bedding are treated with toxic compounds. Many mattresses, pillows, furniture, clothing, toys, etc. used to have (still have?) flame retardant compounds added. Which I guess seems nice, because fires may be rare but still seem bad. But hahaha actually flame retardant compounds are toxic long-term, and they also expel into the air so now we all spend 30% of our time breathing that in ._.

If you've ever gotten a new mattress and read on the instructions that you must allow the mattress to "off-gas" for several hours with ample ventilation before using it, this is why. (But even without flame retardants most mattresses still off-gas other VOCs.)

And if you're wondering why all of this stuff has flame retardants it's because it was mandated by California in 1975 (and has only recently been repealed). Yeah, spending 30% of your life sleeping on flame retardant-treated mattresses and breathing this stuff in was basically legally mandated. Yeah, I'm mad.

I take this as general evidence that no one is looking out for this kind of stuff and I need to do it myself.

But I also don't think it's enough merely to get a pillow that doesn't have flame retardants. I also don't want to sleep on anything made of polyester, which can, for example, release VOCs into the air. (VOCs := volatile organic compounds, compounds that readily jump into the air, and are often toxic.) And I don't want to be breathing in polyester fibers, either— do polyester fibers (which are microplastic) get digested in the lungs, or do they just stay there permanently? Moreover, I don't want anything that was treated with anything potentially harmful in any step of the production process.

So what I wanted was a pillow where literally, absolutely, completely, the only ingredients were down, wool, cotton, and I guess also water and air if I’m going to be pedantic. Maybe other natural fibers could be okay, but I'd need to consider those thoroughly. But, specifically: no treatments, no additives, no superwashing of the wool.

(In the end I found wool that was washed using only baking soda, which I still give an A+.)

I might write a post in the future to explain my naturalistic priors, let me know if this sounds interesting.

Note that there were other fill materials that I could've searched for, too, but I dunno, I aesthetically prefer the idea of snuggling a sheep. And I had previously tried a pillow with down fill, but it was too hot, and wool isn't like this. (I also didn't consider cotton-filled pillows, I'm not sure why.)

Another cool fact about wool is that it permanently absorbs VOCs from the air! Though I don't know if this process happens quickly enough to significantly filter the air you breathe while sleeping.

intermission — attempt #1: making my own pillow

But before doing all of this research I first tried making my own pillow out of heirloom, probably-untreated-and-safe century-old Sicilian wool:

But I found myself with only one-third of enough fill after 4 hours of carding (fluffing) so I gave up.

attempt #2: via e-commerce

Next I went to Amazon and started looking for wool pillows. Many manufacturers claimed that they used "no chemicals" and "no synthetic materials", but I don't trust almost anything on this topic anymore… And I doubt that those claims are regulated or enforceable, either.

Fortunately, there exists certification relevant to my quest:

• OEKO-TEX Standard 100, which actually tests every component of a textile product for presence of hundreds of common toxic compounds (e.g. formaldehyde, lead, glyphosate, benzene, PFOA, …). It made me so happy to find out that such a certification exists, that someone out there cares about this.

  • Note: OEKO-TEX Standard 100 has two relevant classes of certification for pillows: one for skin-to-skin contact for adults (Product Class II), and one for skin-to-skin contact for babies (Product Class I). Class I is much more stringent and it is my natural preference.

  • (Note: there exist other "OEKO-TEX" certifications that are not the same as OEKO-TEX Standard 100, so seeing an "OEKO-TEX" label isn't enough.)

  • Products with this certification should come with a tag with their OEKO-TEX label number to check for authenticity online.

• (Other certifications also exist, e.g. GOLS, GreenGuard Gold, but I don’t think they’re as good.)

So I definitely wanted something that was OEKO-TEX Class I certified. I'd also like it to be organic in some sense as this would help me believe that the processes that created the pillow hadn't created any new or unknown toxic compounds that hadn't been identified before. (As my prior is that almost all theoretically possible compounds are toxic to the body.) The pillow I found in the end is probably organic, but not all components are certified as such.

Ok, to Amazon now. There are many products on Amazon that claim to have OEKO-TEX certification but few of them list their label number. So I asked every relevant pillow and pillowcase seller on Amazon for their 2022 label number and some responded with their numbers, some didn't, and one even sent me a number that might have been fraudulent.

(I also found a few products that were OEKO-TEX Class II certified, but that simply wasn't good enough. I only wanted baby certification. I kept looking.)

When there weren't enough products on Amazon, I moved to google: "OEKO-TEX" "wool" "pillow".

Soon I exhausted all of the coherent pages of google search results online, and had already contacted every OEKO-claiming manufacturer and asked for their label number.

THE SAFEST WOOL PILLOW IN THE WORLD

The ~one company that met all of my criteria was Berkeley Ergonomics. They gave me two separate OEKO-TEX label numbers for their wool pellet fill and for their organic cotton cover, and both checked out for OEKO-TEX Standard 100 Class I, the strictest certification! This is the pillow! (and a second link)

They even have a page describing their wool production process and it's just beautiful:

…There are zero chemicals used during the wool growing and processing steps. The sheep are not dipped or treated with any pesticides or herbicides.

After shearing, the wool goes through three washing cycles with increasing temperatures (90° - 140°F) followed by a cold rinse in pure water. During the washing cycles pure baking soda and water is used – nothing else. The drying takes place in drum driers and the wool is then cooled down on cooling racks for 24-28 hours before pressing and packaging.…

And because there's no stricter certification than this, that makes this the safest¹ wool pillow in the world!

I bought this pillow a few weeks ago and I think it's great. My only hitch was that it was originally too fluffy for me (and I got the softest version) so I took out some of the (precious) wool fill.

OK, all is good, I'm happy now:)

me

A friend who read this post as a draft suggested that I end with “an epilogue about the existential crisis that led me on this quest”. — I’m not sure what she means though, I think this is totally normal.

What about the pillowcase?

I found an OEKO-TEX Standard 100 Class I-certified silk pillowcase; the link is below.

appendix: all of the OEKO-certified bedding products that I found

Here are all of the OEKO-TEX Standard 100 products that I've found along the way. I've obtained and checked all of the label numbers myself for the products below.

• Pillows

  • The safest wool pillow in the world

  • I also found this natural latex pillow with Class I-certified fill, but the cover is not certified. I haven't considered deeply whether natural latex is respiratory-safe, though.

• Pillowcases and sheets

  • Silk pillowcase with Class I certification: 19 momme silk, 25 momme.

    • Although, I don't know if silk is the safest material, there are some studies claiming that silk nanoparticles are toxic. Ugh. Let me know if you have thoughts on this.

    • I use this currently.

  • Cotton sheet sets with Class I certification.

  • Found another silk pillowcase (Class I) although only available in larger sizes

  • more sheets (Class I)

  • cheap Class II-certified regular-sized cotton pillowcase.

• sleep masks

  • silk sleep mask (Class I)

    • I use this currently, but it didn't come with an OEKO label on the product though which is a little weird.

• Mattresses and comforters

  • I haven't looked into OEKO-TEX mattresses or mattress pads yet, though this is probably even more impactful than pillows for exposure. I think Berkeley Ergonomics also has some, though possibly under one of their different brands. I might just end up sleeping on just a comforter on the floor though.

• Another wool manufacturer?

  • I also found another wool product manufacturer that could be good, but they sent me a Class I OEKO-TEX label number for only the fill of their pillow rather than their entire product (cover, zipper, etc.), which was weird. They might also sell mattresses.

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• safety as defined by certification for chemical toxicity (including but not limited VOC emissions).

• I’m only counting pillows that are available retail.

• Other pillows may tie, but there also might not be any others.

• There also might be a stricter textile certification than OEKO-TEX Standard 100, but if there is then it must not be commercial or widely used. I realize now there also might be country-wide retail standards that could rival OEKO-TEX, e.g. perhaps something like “any pillow sold in the EU must meet these strict standards”: I haven’t looked into this.

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