Daily News
From Home Furnishing Business
First Annual Furniture Safety Week Announced by AHFA
April 15,
2024 by HFBusiness Staff in Business Strategy, Industry 
The American Home Furnishings Alliance (AHFA) announces the first annual Furniture Safety Week will be Oct 7-11. The initiative is designed to engage all segments of the home furnishings industry in public conversation about furniture and home safety.
Furniture Safety Week has three key objectives, according to AHFA. First, the effort will improve consumer awareness of home safety issues that involve our industry’s products, including furniture tip-over hazards, recliner safety and bunk bed risks.
A second objective is to elevate the home furnishings industry’s integral role in developing and maintaining effective product safety standards.
“Under the leadership of AHFA, our industry advocates for product regulations that provide the greatest degree of safety for the greatest number of American consumers,” said AHFA CEO Andy Counts.
“AHFA conducts research, recruits member company executives for important task group activity, and builds collaboration with outside stakeholders. All of these efforts help drive continual improvements in product safety and declining incidents involving our industry’s products.”
Finally, the annual effort seeks to embrace cooperative relationships with consumer safety organizations, particularly those dedicated to protecting children.
A newly formed task group includes retailer, manufacturer and importer members of AHFA and is working to develop details for the inaugural 2024 event. Tool kits with social media graphics and messages are planned, along with press releases and ideas for online and store events.
Helpful Furniture Safety Week resources for consumers and industry participants will be available on AHFA’s Alliance4Safety website, www.alliance4safety.org. AHFA launched the Alliance4Safety (A4S) in 2020 to provide insights and educational resources to help protect the health of home furnishings industry workers and to preserve their jobs during the COVID-19 pandemic.
AHFA broadened the A4S focus in 2023 with plans to make the website a repository for a wide array of health and safety information related to home furnishings. A4S will continue providing useful insights for its industry partners in the event of any future pandemic but now will also provide resources to help Americans maintain safe and healthy homes. It was recently tapped by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission to help communicate a nationwide recall of certain tip restraints. A4S has filled more than 2,000 consumer requests for replacement tip kits thus far.
“We look forward to seeing unified Furniture Safety Week messages across all segments of our industry promoting consumer awareness and action,” Counts said. “It’s an effort everyone can get behind.”