Protecting sleepers

January 23, 2011 at 12:00a.m.

By Joan Verdon

The Record (Hackensack N.J.)

HACKENSACK, N.J.

Arnold Hershbain, 64, leads a Cedar Grove, N.J., company, FabricTech International, that makes mattress and pillow protectors. But to hear Hershbain talk, they really should be called sleeper protectors — devices that protect sleepers from their beds.

FabricTech was founded by the late Sam Chase, a mattress-industry veteran who wanted to create a mattress cover that would help his highly allergic son. The mattress protectors he produced originally were sold in physicians’ offices. They’re now sold in retail stores around the country.

Q. Why should someone buy FabricTech protectors?

A. Here’s what distinguishes us from all the other companies making mattress protectors: All of the other companies, their focus is to protect the mattress from the individual; from it getting stained.

Q. And you’re protecting the individual from the mattress?

A. Right. We protect the individual from the mattress, from what grows in the mattress, from what can trigger allergic reactions, anything that can be a detriment to your health. Everything we do is focused on the health and wellness of the individual. Our high-end products have been tested and certified so that they protect the individual against anything that would grow in a mattress, like mold spores, mildew, dust mites and the residue from dust mites. We’ve also tested our products against bedbugs. Our full-enclosure products have been certified to be totally bedbug-proof. If they’re in a mattress, they cannot get out and they cannot poke through the fabric.

Q. Why not?

A. The fabric is of a medical grade. It is a circular-knit polyester coated with a medical-grade urethane coating that prevents moisture from getting into the mattress but that is highly breathable. We’re also coming out with products that actually eliminate germs, bacteria, staph and MRSA.

Q. How do they do that?

A. The fabric interferes with the ability of the microbes to live on fabric. And it’s all natural.

Q. What kills the microbes?

A. Silver. Silver is a natural anti- microbial substance. It interferes with the ability of the microbes to ingest nutrients. We’re also launching a product that promotes healing the Celliant line with a material that helps heal aches and pains.

Q. How does it do that?

A. The fibers are made from minerals. They are infused and woven into the fabric and it oxygenates your blood. Oxygen promotes healing so if you have aches and pains, it can promote a better night’s sleep.

Q. It would work with a sheet on top of it?

A. It doesn’t have to be against your skin it just has to be near you. A lot of athletic-performance companies are using it. We have the license to use Celliant in mattress protectors, pillow protectors and sheets. We’re launching it at the Las Vegas Furniture Market.

Q. Back when you joined Fabric- Tech in 2005, was anybody talking about bedbugs?

A. No.

Q. When did they become a hot topic?

A. Within the last two years. Bedbugs have a lot of notoriety in the press because they’re such a distasteful, disgusting parasite, but the infestation of bedbugs is minuscule compared with the number of people in the United States or in the world who have allergies. More people suffer from allergies, asthma and emphysema than this tiny fraction of people that have an infestation of bedbugs. We spend a third of our lives sleeping in a bed, and one of the most toxic allergen triggers that we know of is the residue from dust mites. Breathing in that residue over time can cause asthma, emphysema, all kinds of allergies. It’s even been linked to depression.