By The Weekly Vision Team
Did you know sleeping on a low-quality mattress can lead to sore muscles or backaches? A low-quality mattress leads to poor sleep posture, which can cause various issues such as back pain, muscle strain, and discomfort. That is why it’s important to choose a mattress that provides proper support and maintains the natural alignment of your spine while sleeping.
A good mattress also helps distribute your body weight evenly and reduces pressure points, contributing to better overall sleep quality and health. The Weekly Vision recently received a hint from an insider at Tuff Foam Mattress Ltd. about how some of Kenya’s top mattress manufacturers, in their pursuit of an extra coin, end up making and selling low-quality products at the expense of the consumer’s health.
Available data also indicate that between the years 2020 and 2023, the Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS) was forced to withdraw permits from some mattress manufacturers for making substandard products. KEBS cited the influx of high-density mattresses in the market. Manufacturers like Tuff Foam Mattress Ltd. have come under criticism from consumers for adding fillers and mixing them with foam to hoodwink people into believing they were of high quality.
An insider at Tuff Foam Mattress Ltd. who spoke to The Weekly Vision on the strict condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals from the management hinted to our writer how the company was engaged in fraudulent activity at the time of making the mattresses. For example, the source told our writer that the company adds less polyol (polyurethane) at 48.43%, more choka at 35%, silicon at 0.73%, and TDI (toluene diisocyanate) at 48.43%; that should never happen.
Adding more or fewer chemical compounds to the manufacturing process of mattresses means that Tuff Foam Mattress Ltd. is not making proper mattresses, which means that some of their products are a danger to your overall health. This is why you find some mattresses are as hard as a rock; consumers think that it is high-density, but it is bad material to sleep on,” a source said.
A source at the Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS) said, “The high density is supposed to be hard enough to sustain the pressure, but if it’s hard like a rock and it causes discomfort, then that is a point of concern. Kenyans are busy thinking it is the best, but it is one of the most dangerous mattresses to sleep on,” he said.
In the course of our investigations into this matter, one consumer in Bungoma (name withheld) told us how, after buying a high-density mattress at a very high price and sleeping on it the first night, the mattress bulged, causing him severe back pain that led him to seek medical advice.
We also visited several stores in Ruiru, Nakuru, Athi River, Limuru, and Bungoma, where we found all these substandard mattresses.
We also reached out to the top management of Tuff Foam Mattress Ltd. for a comment on the issue; this is what their spokesman, who introduced himself as Mr Mukesh of Tuff Steel said, ‘We suggest that you draft questionnaires to all mattress manufacturers in Kenya and (Kebs) over the same subject’. He also falsely accused us of collaborating with his competitors to damage their company’s reputation.
