"Nobody would ever knowingly buy a contaminated mattress," said Mintz. And you have to be very careful before you take that product away from them."ĭateline asked whether just because a family is poor they had to settle for a mattress full of fecal matter, bacteria and fungi. "For a lot of people used mattresses are the right economic choice for them. "I considered that in 10 years they would be eliminated from society." Tierno, "Did you think maybe in the ensuing years that something would be done, that maybe these reconditioned mattresses might be in better shape?" The testing revealed traces of urine, fecal matter, at least seven different fungi, most of which are potentially harmful to children, the elderly, anyone with a compromised immune system. "In one of these cases, the fungi here were far in excess of what we found 10 years ago."Īll of the samples were contaminated - including those from mattresses made in California, which has strict laws and enforcement. "Ten years ago, we found similar fungi," said Dr. So this year we sent him new samples from the factories we visited in Florida, California and New York. Philip Tierno, Director of Clinical Microbiology at New York University, had tested our mattresses and was shocked at the levels of fungi and bacteria he found, pointing out "We had eclubziella growing." His colleague Jeff White added, "It would be very difficult to detect, you're talking about worse than a needle in a haystack." And put that inside the expanse of a mattress." Think about a period on a piece of paper, but make it translucent. "They're a millimeter in size and they're clear. "All those little pearly white things are eggs, they're bedbug eggs," he pointed out. "Now this has a fresh blood meal in it you can see," said Cooper.Ĭooper says adult bedbugs are easy to spot, but eggs or brand new hatchlings are nearly imperceptible. Right away Cooper found a bedbug, fat from a recent feeding. Here in Brooklyn, we found these mattresses tossed to the curb. We asked entomologist Rick Cooper to ride along with us as we documented what happens to them. At dawn, in many American cities, men with vans come out and cart them off to factories, where we were told they sell for five dollars a piece. Reconditioned mattresses begin their journey once they're thrown out to sidewalks or garbage heaps. "These are the refurbished ones right here," said one salesperson. Saying "Have no fear, lay down," a salesman in 1996 tried to sell us rebuilt mattresses as if they were new. We started our investigation in New York, where state law requires them to be labeled clearly with yellow tags marked "used materials." Not disclosing that information is also against federal law. In 1996, 19 states had laws in place regulating the sale of reconditioned mattresses. Right away we found that some things have changed for the better. With the Orkin pest control company now reporting bedbug infestations in all 50 states, we decided to take another look at reconditioned mattresses to see if the companies that produce and sell them are doing a better job than they were 11 years ago. We also found a dead bedbug with its eggs. Beneath new covers, filthy old materials were contaminated with urine, fecal matter and dangerous fungi, all of which can seep out through the cover over time.
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