Yahoo Lifestyle Kmart investigates after customer's 'disgusting' find on pillows
A Kmart customer looking to purchase Anko pillows found they were stained with yellow and dark patches.
A Kmart shopper looking to buy bed pillows could not believe what she found covering the ones at her local store. Kaz was shopping at Kmart in Richmond, near Nelson in New Zealand "looking at pillows" when she came across a potentially dangerous contamination on Anko Cotton Rich Cover sets.
"They’ve all got black mould on them," she said while filming several pillows stained with yellow and dark patches. "Can you see that? That’s so disgusting."
People shocked by alleged mould discovery
Kaz says she let floor staff know about the pillow contamination before also sharing the footage online, much to the horror of some.
"OMG," people exclaimed. "What the actual, it looks like someone's used them and returned them," another said.
One person claiming to have worked in a "bed store" said it was the plastic wrapping causing the issues. "[It's] moisture from plastic wrapping, I managed a bed store and they used to go mouldy and stink," they said.
While others labelled these types of pillows as "mould magnets". "I was just about to say do not buy them, they get mouldy very easily. We regularly check ours, we live in Far North Queensland but that brand attracts [mould] like flies to s**t," one Aussie said.
Yahoo News Australia has contacted Kmart to check if store staff have removed products from the shelves since Kaz reported it, and to confirm if there have been reports of "mould" on pillows from other Kmart stores. Kmart has declined to comment on the matter though it's understood a full product inspection is to be conducted.
Kmart asks customers who have an issue with a product to get in touch with them as soon as possible so they can investigate.
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Mould exposure can lead to health problems
While the substance staining the Kmart pillows is not confirmed to be mould, environmental epidemiologist and senior research fellow at UNSW, Dr Christine Cowie, previously told Yahoo mould is a type of fungi found in the natural environment and is "very common" in homes and/or in humid conditions.
"In many people, they won’t cause any symptoms, but exposure to mould in the home has been linked to an increase in sensitivity," she said.
This has been associated with common symptoms such as sneezing, nasal congestion, headaches and irritated eyes. Cowie said the mould spores can cause people to develop a severe mould infection, usually in the lungs, from breathing in large amounts of specific allergens over a period of time.
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