At some point in your life you were told that hypoallergenic goose down causes allergic reactions in a high percentage of the global population. You know it’s true, because you’ve heard stories of people who have bought a goose down comforter and woken up in the dead of night itching, sneezing and panicking because they can’t breathe. You might have even discovered your own allergy thanks to an experience in childhood, or worse – had to suffer the effects after making the ill-advised decision to buy a pillow filled with goose down.
Now you won’t go anywhere near it because you firmly believe that something terrible will happen if you do. Its stories and experiences like these that fuel the myth that goose down causes dangerous allergic reactions in people. The truth is that goose down and duck down have nothing to do with the sudden onset of a coughing attack or a spreading red rash that irritates your skin.
Goose down and down filled products have been falsely accused for too long, and its time to set the record straight and explain the truth about Hypoallergenic Goose Down.
Exposing The Goose Down Myth
The Myth: I am allergic to goose down and feathers.
This statement comes from a lack of education about goose down and feather products. You may think goose down has a bad reputation, because many comforters, beds or pillows on the market may arouse allergic reactions in people, regardless of their claim to be allergy free. The misguided manufacturers and sellers of less than par goose down comforters have cast a dark shadow on the industry with their so-called ‘sanitized merchandise’, further perpetrating the myth that all goose down products cause allergies in one way or another.
The Truth: There is no such thing as a goose down allergy!
The cause of allergies has nothing to do with the goose down. Allergies are caused by what is left in and on the goose down prior to stuffing the goose down into a shell. The allergens that cause the severe reactions are dust particles, dander and the oils that remain on the tiny scales of dander that lie embedded in unclean goose down.
This in turn leads to the attraction of dust mites, which further aggravates the problem. If the goose down product has been subject to a proper sterilization process, then no allergies are possible, at all. This is because the correct hypoallergenic goose down cleaning and sterilization process removes all allergens.
Defining a Truly Hypoallergenic Product
First of all, a product label that says the goose down has been sanitized, may not mean that it’s been cleaned enough to remove all allergens. Beware of the wording. Some companies simply mask the allergenic effects by spraying a chemical on the down, instead of thoroughly cleaning the goose down and then heat treating it, then verifying the effectiveness via lab approved testing processes. Spraying chemical products on as a mask doesn’t remove the allergens, and that’s why people may experience allergic reactions when using hypoallergenic products, because the goose down isn’t cleaned properly.
Truly hypoallergenic goose down is exposed to an advanced cleaning and drying process. The rigorous cleaning and sterilizing process ensures goose down is hypo-allergenic without the use of masking agents. By using proper cleaning techniques designed to reach a minimum of 800mm turbidity and oxygen numbers of less than 3.5, the goose down is freed of all allergen causing materials.
Companies such as Northern Goose Down take it a step further and ensure all of their truly hypoallergenic goose down under goes a heat sterilization treatment where the down is raised to a temperature in excess of 120 degrees Celsius and held at that temperature for a minimum of 30 minutes guaranteeing 100% truly hypo-allergenic goose down.
The next time you’re looking for a hypoallergenic goose down product, make sure that these standard processes are applied. If you do, you won’t experience any allergic reaction to the goose down itself. This means you’ll be able to rest in comfort all year round, improving your sleep patterns and effectively fighting off seasonal illnesses that creep in from being very cold, or very hot during the night.
The right hypoallergenic product means that your goose down is 100% allergen free.
