If a textile article carries the STANDARD 100 label, you can be certain that every component of this article, i.e. every thread, button and other accessories, has been tested for harmful substances and that the article therefore is harmless for human health. The test is conducted by our independent OEKO-TEX® partner institutes on the basis of our extensive OEKO-TEX® criteria catalog. In the test they take into account numerous regulated and non-regulated substances, which may be harmful to human health. In many cases the limit values for the STANDARD 100 go beyond national and international requirements. The criteria catalog is updated at least once a year and expanded with new scientific knowledge or statutory requirements. It is not easy for manufacturers and customers to keep an overview of the legal situation concerning harmful substances every day. Our experts from the OEKO-TEX® institutes do this for you.

We stock Yoga Mats which are certified according to Standard 100 by OEKO-TEX®. If you are interested in purchasing a Yoga Mat which is certified with by Oeko-Tex click here.

Health and environmentalism are implicit in the philosophy of yoga. For this reason, there has always been a certain degree of genuine eco-awareness in the yoga industry. What is relatively new, though, is the industry’s tendency to market each and every product with a bombardment of health-related or environmental promises. You will hardly find a yoga mat these days that is not at least “eco-friendly”. The problem with these promises is that there often is no sheriff in town to set standards or regulations, basically leaving “eco-friendliness” a self-defining term. Without scientifically sound data provided to back these promises up, how can you be sure that every yoga mat in the market is in fact as harmless as it sounds?

For more than 25 years, the International Association for Research and Testing in the Field of Textile and Leather Ecology has been the sheriff at Kurma. Since 2012, our German-made PVC mats have been certified according to the association’s Standard 100 by OEKO-TEX®, Product class I (articles for babies and toddlers).

The Standard 100 by OEKO-TEX® list of criteria contains around 100 annually updated test parameters for harmful substances, including AZO, DOP, phthalates, Bisphenol-A (BPA), lead and dioxins (see full list here).

We are well aware of the fact that products underlying strict certification procedures come with a certain price tag not everybody is comfortable with. At the same time, we are convinced that this is the only way to guarantee the absolute safety of our mats both during usage and at the end of their life cycle. In the process of finding a recycling partner for our yoga mats, it turned out that only a handful of specialized companies worldwide have the technical means to 100% reuse them into new products. None of these companies, however, will recycle every yoga mat they get hold of: To protect their workers, sound evidence as to the safety of the material must be provided – and the Standard 100 by OEKO-TEX® does just that.