Update: This bill was vetoed in July 2010, plus other news in mattresses here.
S04071 (Monserrate) and A07691 would eliminate the exception whereby bedding returned within a 30-day customer trial period can still be sold as new. Who invented the 30-day mattress comfort trial, anyway?
The bill would also require manufacturers and renovators to disclose the sanitization methods they employ, would prohibit the storage and transport of unsanitized used bedding with new bedding and would provide for damages and recovery of the cost of the mattress, the cost of sanitizing the mattress and related medical expenses.
Another bill, A07157 (Robinson) in the Assembly and S04052 in the Senate, would require all used mattresses be disposed of in an enclosed container.
I think these bills are good. The 30-day trial exception in particular has to go in the age of bed bugs. However, the essential component of any useful policy here has to be the state’s sanitization standards. I now realize that we have not returned to the subject of mattresses in a long while. At the NYC Council hearing in February a city official said that the comment period had ended but that the Department of State was proceeding with additional revisions to the proposed regulations; however, there is no change to the draft posted online. I will finalize our comments based on this draft shortly then. Basically, we categorically object to any proposal that would allow the sanitization of used bedding with spray disinfectants or pesticides of the kind currently labeled for use on mattresses. Secondly, we think that the current draft conflates the idea of encasement as we know it, that is to say, a control tool (not a prophylactic) during an active infestation, with the idea of a barrier. This would be inappropriate in our view. More soon I hope.
These pages may be of related interest: