Tear the Tags Off the Mattress Day

Tear the Tags Off the Mattress Day is commemorated annually on May 9th to encourage us be strong and don’t fear.

This is definitely not an event for the shy. However, if you like to crave the excitement and live out there, prepare yourself with new courage and courage! Ignore the posted warnings from the government and tear those tags up! And if you're really brave, make a pillow. I did. I tore the cards from a pillow! I am guilty.

Under regulation of law, it is said to be not allowed removing tags from our mattresses. Most tags even say something like "It is illegal to remove this tag!" Due to regulations of government, the tags and tearing them off has considered as a fun tradition for a lot people. Jay Leno joked that his mom is so law-abiding that she checks her cards once a month, and Woody Allen parodied the cards with the story of two skaters breaking into a house and slash them.

However, you can go ahead and cut the card without fear of the jackboot-buffered police kicking in your door and dragging you out into the street. The card's stark warning is there to protect you, the end user: it's illegal to remove the card before the mattress reaches the person who will be sleeping on it.

Take a look at your mattress tag and you'll see that there's more to it than just a "don't get rid of me" warning. The tag aims to assure consumers that their products are new, unused and to let them know exactly what is inside it. The need for this protective label arose in the early 20th century, amid an explosion of consumer protection regulations. At the time, mattresses were typically made with some unsavory material - horsehair, corn husks, leftovers, old rags, newspaper, and whatever else the manufacturer could get to on a regular basis stuffed inside. The consumer will never see those, so no harm, no foul, right? Not really. Some of these harbor harmful bacteria and organisms in the home that give careless consumers a restless night's sleep.

The government has tackled this problem by requiring mattress manufacturers to stick tags with the product's contents on their products. Consumers can then make informed decisions and steer clear of mattresses stuffed with rough or hazardous materials. Listing the “ingredients” right on the mattress puts filthy rags at a distinct disadvantage in the marketplace. So to solve the problem, after fulfilling their legal obligation to add the tag, some manufacturers simply tear it up before shipping to retailers. Elsewhere, salespeople tear down slow-selling products to help with sales.

The government countered with a new regulation. The tags must now carry a warning not to be removed, and federal regulations provide for the “deleting or mutilation of, or causing or engaging in, removal or mutilation, prior to the time of any textile product.” are sold and delivered to the end consumer, any required stamps, tags, labels or other identification” on them. Any person violating this section will be guilty of an unfair practice of competition and an unfair or deceptive act or conduct, under the Commission Act Federal Trade.

The move has deterred dishonest mattress dealers, but also confused many consumers, who intentionally left tags for fear of prosecution. In recent years, the federal and state governments have eased the minds of law-abiding citizens by amending mattress laws so that tags that say “this card will not be deleted except for the consumer.”

So go ahead, tear that thing up and sleep easily.