Upholstery FR regs moving slowly
Passage of standard not likely before '05
By Gary Evans -- Furniture Today, March 14, 2004
Greensboro, N.C. — Greensboro, N.C.— Upholstered furniture manufacturers won't face changes to current flammability regulations anytime soon as the wheels of government grind through proceedings leading to new laws.
Dale Ray, project manager for the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, said last week that steps leading to passage of a federal standard likely would extend into next year. There's no definite timetable for enactment, he said. The most recent development was publishing a notice of proposed rule-making in the Federal Register on Oct. 23, 2003.
Ray spoke last week to some 260 participants in an American Furniture Manufacturers Assn. flammability workshop here. He noted that a federal standard is supported by AFMA, a coalition of fabric makers, United Laboratories and the National Assn. of Fire Marshals.
Also updating attendees on flammability issues were Lynn Morris, bureau chief, and John McCormack, manager of research and development, of the California Bureau of Home Furnishings, currently working on its own legislation.
Morris said that proposed legislation to revise California's Technical Bulletin 117 is in the research stages and open for discussion. But she acknowledged the legislation has been on hold while the bureau focuses on a new mattress flammability law that becomes effective Jan. 1.
She said the bureau endorses a proposed federal standard, which would require that upholstery pieces withstand an open flame for 20 seconds and also resist fires from smoldering cigarettes.
"We really don't like to be a hot dog out there in California, no matter what you think," Morris told her audience. "We're doing everything we can to work with CPSC."
She noted the bureau has received questions about the compliance of importers.
"The state enforces regulations affecting 23,000 licensees around the world," she said. "We treat (imports) just like our licensees in California."
A revised TB 117 would allow manufacturers to use fabrics or components resistant to both small open flames and smoldering cigarettes.
The industry currently has a widely used voluntary standard, on cigarette ignition only, promulgated in 1978 by the Upholstered Furniture Action Council. Joe Ziolkowski, UFAC executive director and the meeting's moderator, said fire fatalities caused by cigarettes igniting upholstery have fallen from 1,300 to 400 annually.
The industry would like to shift some fire-safety responsibilities to cigarette makers, but a number of safer-cigarette bills have gone nowhere in the U.S. Congress. Ray said New York soon would implement lower-ignition-propensity regulations for cigarettes that presumably would reduce fire losses, and CPSC will study the outcome.
David Pettey, director of product development for Quaker Fabric, said the 20-second flame test is unrealistically long, and "heavy amounts of fire-resistant chemicals are necessary to enable some fabrics to pass, some of the time."
He suggested the test be 5 seconds, and responsibility for fire resistance be spread across all components, including fabrics and core fillings like foam. Otherwise, some 500,000 fabrics available today would have to be re-engineered, raising the cost of furniture dramatically.
He said FR foam, coupled with fire-resistant fabrics, would meet standards more stringent than California's TB 117.
Pettey cautioned against standards based on the United Kingdom's BS 5852, considered among the strictest, because tests indicate compliance rates of about 50%.
"The reality is that they're not as compliant as we think they are," he said, adding the British are "not as litigious" as Americans.
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