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From Home Furnishing Business

AHFA Calls on Members to Promote Furniture Safety Week

September 4, 2024  by Karen Parrish in Business Strategy, Industry   

“We are engaging all segments of the industry, along with child safety advocates and organizations, in this effort to reduce the number of home accidents involving furniture,” says AHFA Vice President of Communications Patricia Bowling. “With AHFA companies leading the way, this annual initiative will spotlight simple furniture safety practices to help keep everyone, especially children, safe at home.”

Furniture-related incidents are not among the leading causes of childhood injuries in the home, and that leads many safety advocates to label furniture a “hidden hazard.” It is a toddler’s unexpected step up on an open drawer; the sudden entanglement of an improvised Superman cape on the ladder of a bunk bed; or the temptation to sneak naptime shelter underneath grandpa’s reclined chair – these are the innocent and unforeseen actions that sometimes lead to tragic consequences due to “hidden hazards” that are in plain view of even the most watchful parents.

“By concentrating furniture safety messages during one defined time period in October, we hope to amplify our voices and bring these common home hazards out to the open,” says Bowling.

Furniture Safety Week, slated for Oct 7-11, is sponsored by AHFA and Alliance4Safety.org, the website created by AHFA in 2020 to convey industry best practices for operating during the Covid-19 pandemic. AHFA broadened the website’s focus in 2023 with plans to make it a repository for a wider array of health and safety information. For example, in January 2024, it conveyed information to consumers about a nationwide recall of certain furniture tip restraints.

A new Furniture Safety Week page on the website provides information for those who want to help sponsor the campaign, as well as for those who want to participate by sharing articles, social media posts and safety tips – all of which are downloadable from the Toolkit also posted on the site.

“Manufacturers, importers, retailers, e-commerce sites, interior designers, sales reps, design influencers, trade media and consumer media all have a role to play in this effort,” Bowling emphasizes. “By concentrating furniture safety messages during one defined time period, we can amplify our voices and bring common home hazards out to the open.”

Companies can get involved by signing up to be a Furniture Safety Week Participant. AHFA will send updates to these company contacts throughout September, including notifications as resources are added to the online Furniture Safety Week Toolkit.

“Support for the campaign is growing among a wide variety of groups that are helping us build participation,” Bowling notes. Child safety advocates in Parents Against Tip-Overs, Kids in Danger and the International Association for Child Safety are encouraging their members to participate. The Home Furnishings Association, Furniture First Buying Group, Furniture Marketing Group and FurnitureDealer.Net are promoting Furniture Safety Week participation to their retail members. The International Home Furnishings Representatives Association also is collaborating by sharing Furniture Safety Week information with its members.

Topics spotlighted by this year’s campaign include:

Furniture tip-over. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) reports that 58 children died between 2013 and 2023 when a piece of furniture tipped over on them. Another 50 died during this same time period when a TV plus the furniture it was sitting on tipped over. Together these two types of accidents result in the death of at least one child every month.

Bunk beds. An estimated 36,000 children are injured playing on or jumping off bunk beds each year, according to Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Cincinnati. Boys under 6 years old are injured most often, and children under 3 are more likely to sustain serious injuries.

Reclining furniture. In the last 10 years, eight children have died and many more were injured when they became trapped in or under a reclining chair. As a result, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission is calling for a new safety standard for reclining furniture.

Glass tabletops. More than 2.5 million Americans sustain injuries involving glass tabletops every year, according to a 2020 study by Rutgers New Jersey Medical School. The study of 3,000 incidents found most injuries occur among children under age 7 and young adults in their early 20s.

TV tip-over. TV tip-over fatalities have been declining due to the rising popularity of wall-mounting flat screen televisions. Within households that cannot mount, though – including many rentals – unsecured televisions remain a significant hazard. Between 2013 and 2023, CPSC reports 40 children died from injuries sustained when a television fell on them. As noted earlier, another 50 died when the TV plus the furniture it was sitting on fell.

Furniture Safety Week will improve consumer awareness of these and other potential home hazards and how to help prevent them.