CPSC Head Says Proposed Tip-Over Testing Changes Coming Soon

October 27, 2017  by Larry Thomas in Business Strategy, Industry   

During a speech at the American Home Furnishings Alliance’s Regulatory Summit earlier this week, Acting Chair Ann Marie Buerkle said the announcement, formally known as an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPR), will serve at the foundation for any new standards. However, she urged furniture manufacturers and retailers to submit comments on the ANPR and provide data to support their position.

“It’s a way for everyone to be engaged in the rule-making process before there’s any determination as to what the rule will look like,” she told the group.

She said the CPSC had hoped to issue the ANPR during the 2017 fiscal year, which ended Sept. 30, but it’s now scheduled for release “in a few weeks.” A CPSC staff member attending the conference said it probably would be issued in mid-November.

The commission is considering changes to voluntary tip-over standards adopted in 2014 that, among other things, require dressers and chests to support a 50-pound weight in an open drawer without tipping over.

One of the changes being considered would increase the test weight to 60 pounds, but Buerkle said she didn’t want the CPSC to make any changes without supporting data. And she noted that one of her priorities as commission chairman is to make sure the group’s decisions are data-driven.

“Our agency needs to be brought into the 21^st century where we have the capability to analyze the data from many sources. We can’t be afraid of that,” Buerkle said. “You have to constantly remind yourself it’s about data; it’s about numbers; it’s about science. We can’t rely on emotion.”

Buerkle told the furniture group she’s a big proponent of voluntary standards, and she hopes any changes to the 2014 tip-over standards will be in that form, as opposed to CPSC mandates.

“Take the voluntary standards route,” she urged the group. “A consensus standard to me...is much more user friendly. It’s far more nimble than our rule-making.”

Thus far in 2017, there have been 17 CPSC-backed recalls of chests or dressers that didn’t meet the existing tip-over standards and represented a safety hazard for children.

And earlier this month, a child died after becoming trapped beneath an Ikea dresser that was the subject of a 2016 recall.