The smell is from polyvinyl chloride off gassing and it's bad stuff. You can't wipe it off and at best your masking the smell. It takes time to work it's way out of the mat. The differences people are experiencing are likely due to different ages of mats etc and different amounts of PVC's in the various mats. I find if I let the mat air out for week it's not nearly as bad. Chemical composition can vary and I have seen old mats that still had a strong smell but surely have finished off gassing. Unfortunately PVC's out perform other materials when it comes to the "self healing" characteristics quilters are looking for. Some day I'm sure they'll come up with something better but until then we are stuck with this stuff. Odds are no rep would want to talk about PVC's in their products and if you do a search about the stuff you'll understand why.