hello - I had to go back to smell them, because I didn’t notice anything when I was putting the topper on the bed.
now that the topper is in the mattress protector and has a sheet over it, I can not smell anything. the pillow smells like rubber if I stick my nose right into it, through the pillow case not so much. It came in a pillow cover so I unzipped that and removed it to let it air out as you suggested, but the smell wasn’t that strong and I could barely notice it until sticking my nose in to it.
my wife on the other hand has a nose like a hound dog, and her comment was that the topper didn’t smell at all but the pillow does smell like rubber. I’ll see in a few days with some airing out how it is, but I don’t think it would have been an issue with me if you hadn’t pointed it out.
one other thing, and I just double checked my order to be sure. I ordered the queen size topper and when I laid it out, it was too big by a considerable amount in width (length was right). I could easily cut it with a pair of decent titanium scissor I had, and cut off the excess which yielded a perfect sized pad for camping. Some people might have been annoyed, but it could be more easy to cut and I was actually quite pleased I get a “free” camping pad out of the deal