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Pillows

The Backstory

Personal Health

Beds provide an optimal breeding ground for household dust mites, which are potent allergens and a factor in 50 to 80 percent of asthmatics. Dust mites also contribute to eczema and hay fever. Found more commonly in mattresses than pillows, pillows are still hosts because dust mites feed on human dander and skin flakes; 10 percent of the weight of a two-year-old pillow can be composed of dead mites and their droppings.

A study published in the January 2006 journal Allergy also found that that the average pillow--whether synthetic or down--contained between four and 16 different types of fungi, with synthetic pillows at the higher end of that range. The most common fungus found in the study, aspergillus fumigatus, is allergenic and contributes to asthma attacks and sinusitis. People with compromised immune systems are particularly affected by it.

Finally, pillows bear the same problems as other fabrics, in that they can be treated with perfluorochemical (PFC) finishes to make them water and stain resistant. Before it was phased out in 2000, the 3M company documented that perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) was used on decorative pillows. Now, some "stain-resistant" bed pillows are being advertised as having "Teflon-treated fabric" shells. Teflon is made using the PFC perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), which was recently labeled a likely human carcinogen by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Fabric treatments can also contain formaldehyde, another EPA-designated likely human carcinogen.

Environmental

Because pillows are commonly filled with synthetic materials, they can be a terrible drain on non-renewable resources. Polyester, which is a common fill and casing material, is derived from petroleum, as is polyurethane foam.

Conventional cotton used in covers and cotton batting requires extremely high amounts of hazardous synthetic chemicals required for production. Seven of the top 15 pesticides used on cotton are classified as at least possible human carcinogens, and billions of pounds of nitrogen-based synthetic fertilizers are also used, resulting in runoff that can create aquatic "dead zones" in waterways. Dead zones are oxygen-depleted areas lacking sea life, and a third of the world's 146 oceanic dead zones are off of U.S. shores, according to the UN. In the Gulf of Mexico, one covers 7,000 square miles, fed by millions of tons of nitrogen from synthetic fertilizers and animal feces draining into the Mississippi, sparking "red tide" algae blooms that can poison unsuspecting shellfish consumers. This same dead zone was blamed for the tripling of shark attacks off the Texas coastline in 2004.

As for conventional wool production, it also involves the use of pesticides on pastures and chemicals in the feed.

Animal Welfare

Down and feathers are very popular fill choices for pillows, but one which unfortunately is associated with numerous animal rights issues. The material is collected from ducks and geese in one of two ways. Feathers are either plucked while the animals are still alive, or they're gathered after the animals have been killed for meat, says Karen Davis, president and a director of the advocacy group United Poultry Concern. Ducks and geese that are killed for their meat are typically raised in large factory farms where animals are live in filthy conditions and are deprived of access to water and the outdoors.

Because of the animal rights issues associated with down, Pier 1 Imports recently decided to cease using it in all of their pillows. They had been purchasing the down from a subsidiary of Maple Leaf Farms, one of the country's largest poultry producers and one which is known for unsavory living conditions for animals.

Some companies advertise that their down comes from "free-range" animals and gathered during the animals' natural molting phase. However, "free-range" is not a certified label and does not provide any assurance that the feathers were plucked humanely.