Vilmundur Möller Sigurðsson, a master electrician, struggled a few years ago with severe and serious health problems that doctors were unable to identify where they came from. He suffered from chronic pain all over his body, developed all kinds of rashes, hair loss, inflammation, and rheumatic symptoms. By then he had sleep apnea, sweating and constant chronic fatigue.
“I had some nasal congestion and some weird stuff in my nose. So I went to the doctor and had surgery, the middle of the peninsula was somewhat damaged, he said. And it’s going well and everything opens up and I’m like that for a few weeks or months. Then everything has closed again and I just realize it afterwards and it was the pillow. I started by buying a health pillow like this and it caused these inflammations that blocked my nose and I’m just seeing this in a lot of people, thousands that I’ve talked to since,”
says Vilmundur in the Chat with Frosti Logason.
Vilmundur says that further symptoms appeared, he bought a mattress and believed that his health would be fine, but that was not the case. He says that the most serious thing in the case is that people may not immediately experience symptoms.
“In reality, it’s just leftover oil products that are created when gasoline is made and more. But that’s where the industry kicks in with some sponge chemicals and of course it’s cool in seats on cars and just all kinds of things. And there comes a product that is cheaper to produce with more equalization and such cool features. And in the beginning these are maybe four different chemicals that are used in the sponge that have no such significant effect on most people. But then the number of substances starts to increase. And then now for maybe twenty thirty years, everything has started to be used for some sixty materials in each mattress. The body starts collecting these nanoparticles that get into the bloodstream, just starts accumulating them into swelling and edema. I was swollen in the face with swelling on the back of the neck and shoulders, in the knee joints and then this kind of arthritis and fibromyalgia and you know fatigue. These unexplained diseases.”
In 2017, Vilmundur says he was overwhelmed by inflammation, tired and had a lot of night sweats. He has always woken up tired, been tired during the day, felt unbalanced and more.
During the period he was ill, he moved four times, thinking that his mattress had been with him the whole time. So he started googling and reading if he can. I changed my pillow and immediately felt better health in a few days. A month later, he decided to replace the mattress as well.
“And then I noticed a difference in my health. My body immediately became lighter, the inflammation decreased, my mobility grew, my fatigue decreased and everything started to come back again. That old energy I knew.”
He wondered if others were in the same shoes and started the Facebook group Is my bed killing me?!!! on Friday evening. On Sunday, 4-5 thousand people had joined the group and many said they were experiencing the same symptoms.
Vilmundur believes today he knows exactly what caused all these symptoms, but he says that he did not get his health under control until he stopped sleeping on tempur and memory foam mattresses, mattresses that are usually called memory foam mattresses. Since this happened, Vilmundur has delved into the matter and discovered that in the vast majority of cases, the health mattresses in question contain a myriad of harmful evaporating substances that can have a very serious impact on people’s health.
The Facebook group grew and after a few days, Vilmundur says he was interviewed on RÚV. It was taken on the steps of the radio house and should have been in the news the same evening and he envisioned that there would be a great discussion, the health authorities would have to get into the matter, pressure would arise, everything would get started.
“I’ve started something that needs to be addressed. Then I get a message later that day that the interview has been cancelled, it should not be published on RÚV.”
Vilmundur says that the explanation he received was that the reporter who conducted the interview was too attached to the seller of the mattresses and another reporter would be brought in to the case. He thought that the interview would simply be repeated, but heard nothing more from RÚV, despite the fact that he had pressed for answers.
“Then I ended up showing up at RÚV and just going into the lobby and asking if I could talk to a reporter. And I wasn’t invited in, but Þóra Arnórsdóttir just came out in the lobby and kind of swept me out again and there was nothing really like that with me. She was quite rushing and somehow as if I didn’t belong there.
Why don’t they want to cover something that is causing a lot of Icelanders damage to their health? Why does RÚV, of all Icelanders, want a safety valve for a nation that has responsibilities to perform, why don’t they want to help people, sick people? Station two, now Sýn, they contacted me there right from the beginning and also interviewed me. And it’s now a medium that is now more dependent on advertising revenue than RÚV, and I have a certain understanding that they don’t want to rock the boat too much.”
Vilmundur says that Channel 2 also did an interview, but that did not appear either.
“Maybe it’s just too big a case to publish”, says Vilmundur, who says that he had asked for an explanation, but did not remember what the answer was, as it had been a long time coming. 2-3 years ago, he again attended a meeting on Channel 2 where the matter was discussed, but he received a reply that no news would be reported.
