AHFA Encourages Participation in Furniture Safety Week

October 2, 2024  by Karen Parrish in Business Strategy, Industry   

“Manufacturers, importers, retailers, e-commerce sites and interior designers have all joined in this effort,” reported Patricia Bowling, vice president of communications for the American Home Furnishings Alliance (AHFA). “Regardless what segment of the industry you are in, if you see a Furniture Safety Week post on social media next week, share it! That’s the easiest way to join in and increase our impact. Together, we can draw attention to common hazards and provide simple steps to help families prevent accidental injuries.”

A menu of social media graphics and messaging is provided in the Furniture Safety Week Participant Toolkit, Bowling pointed out.

Industry trade organizations participating in Furniture Safety Week include: Home Furnishings Association, International Home Furnishings Representatives Association, Interior Design Society, American Society of Interior Designers and Juvenile Products Manufacturers Association.

Buying groups assisting in the effort include Furniture First and Furniture Marketing Group. Additional collaborators include FurnitureDealer.net, which has designed custom Furniture Safety Week content for its participating retailer websites, and tip restraint providers B. Walter & Co. and Hangman Products, both of which offered bulk discounts on tip restraint orders for participating Furniture Safety Week retail stores. ANDMORE also stepped up as a collaborator, sharing Furniture Safety Week news with home furnishings exhibitors at its showrooms in Atlanta, High Point and Las Vegas.

In addition, the American Home Furnishings Alliance collaborated with CertiPUR-US to produce a video news release spotlighting “hidden” home hazards and offering tips to prevent accidents. The segment will be distributed to TV stations across the U.S. next week.

Additional organizations lending support to the campaign include Parents Against Tip-Overs (www.parentsagainsttipovers.org), Kids in Danger (www.kidsindanger.org), and the International Association for Child Safety (www.iafcs.org).

Companies can sign up to participate by clicking the link below and entering contact information. AHFA will send updates to these participants as new resources are added to the online Furniture Safety Week toolkit.

FURNITURE SAFETY WEEK PARTICIPANT

Topics spotlighted by this year’s campaign, along with social media posts designed to raise awareness of the hazard, include:

Furniture tip-over. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) reports that 58 children have died since 2013 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 under a reclining or lift chair. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission is calling for a new safety standard for furnishings with reclining or lift features.

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. Since 2013, 40 children have died from injuries sustained when a television fell on them. As noted earlier, another 50 died when a 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.