I keep hearing people talk about fiberglass and I’ve heard of the name but I have no clue what it is. And now I keep seeing so many people freaking out bcs there is fiberglass in their mattress and I’m so confused. I’ve tried searching it up but I still don’t really understand what it is. Can someone explain pls?
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I used to work at a fiberglass plant in SE Ontario. We had two plants. One made the glass fibers and the other made the resin. I worked at the latter plant.
Fiberglass insulation as used in houses is just glass fibers.
But what we call fiberglass as used in boats, RVs and cars like the Corvette is actually a 2 part composite consisting of woven or mat fiberglass cloth and polyester resin.
Various versions of this composite material are also found in mattresses, and other things too.
The glass fibers are definitely not good to breathe in, but this would be more the case if you were bumping around in an attic or sanding down a boat. I can’t really see how a mattress would be bad for you.
The resin is full of all kinds of very unpleasant things. It was the scariest job I’ve ever had. The main ingredient, styrene, is a carcinogen. I used a gas mask almost all the time because the union steward told me his headaches stopped once he wore his more often.
Obviously once cured the acute toxicity would fall off a cliff but I’d think breathing in the cured dust wouldn’t be good either. Like someone working in boat building or a body shop. Gelcoats and Bondo were two of the products we made at the resin plant.
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