Forum Focuses On Flammability

April 25, 2007  by in UnCategorized   

By Home Furnishings Business in Mattresses on April 2007 While new federal requirements on fire-resistant mattresses take effect in July, it€™s not clear how long it could take the Consumer Products Safety Commission to finalize and enact similar standards for upholstered furniture.

Groups including Citizens Against Government Waste have called for more urgent action, saying the CPSC has been considering regulations for over a decade. However, furniture industry groups say current voluntary guidelines have helped reduce cigarette-related furniture fires by nearly 80 percent. The National Home Furnishings Alliance, which sponsored a forum on the issue Wednesday in Greensboro, has joined other industry groups in calling for more research. The industry groups say the CPSC has over-estimated the benefits of additional regulations on upholstered furniture while under-estimating the cost of upholstery regulations.

At the AHFA-sponsored forum, Dale Ray, project manager for the CPSC€™s upholstered furniture initiative, said the goal of the new mattress standard and upholstery regulations that are being studied is to reduce fire deaths by 20 percent from 1998 levels within six years. He said the agency is continuing to research test methods and is working with government, industry and fire officials on technical issues and address objections that industry organizations have raised.

Ray said many industry groups don€™t oppose requirements to make sofas and chairs more resistant to fires started by smoldering cigarettes, but question the benefits of additional requirements focused on preventing fires ignited by open flames. The CPSC estimates that 88 percent of fire deaths involving upholstered furniture were caused by cigarettes.

Part of the CPSC€™s research is focusing on how fire-safe cigarettes€”which are now mandated in New York€”could bring about additional fire reductions, if they become required by more states or adopted as an industry standard.

The new mattress standards that go into effect in July would impose penalties on retailers and manufacturers who sell mattresses manufactured after July 1, 2007 that don€™t meet the CSPC€™s fire-resistant standards. Retailers can continue to sell non-conforming mattresses made before July 1, 2007, but could face penalties for violations involving new mattresses made after that date. Allyson Tenney, who headed the CSPC€™s mattress initiative, said it took seven years for the mattress standards to be enacted. Tenney said she couldn€™t comment on possible penalties for violators on Wednesday. Among the penalties listed on a CPSC Web site is a fine of up to $8,000 for selling a new mattress or mattress set that doesn€™t conform and isn€™t backed up with a required mattress label certifying that it meets the CPSC standard.