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California fire regulations stay on track

By David Perry -- Furniture Today, January 11, 2004

NORTH HIGHLANDS, Calif. — Suppliers of fire-resistant materials hailed the news that California's proposed flammability regulations have been exempted from a freeze on pending regulatory action.

That freeze, imposed by Calif. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in November, was lifted for the pending FR regulations at the end of December.

Lynn Morris, the chief of the California Bureau of Home Furnishings, disclosed the news in an interview with Furniture/Today. FR suppliers were pleased to learn of the development, which keeps California on track to begin enforcing its proposed open-flame mattress regulations on Jan. 1, 2005.

Bob McKinnon, chairman and chief executive officer of supplier McKinnon-Land-Moran, said: "We are pleased that a decision has been made now, and California and the bedding industry can now move forward. "

"We were pleased and relieved to hear that the hold was lifted," said Ashutosh Karnik, market manager for new business growth and development at Freudenberg Nonwovens. "It was the right thing to do. The earlier decision to put the regulation on hold did bring in uncertainty and confusion. However, assuring comments from Lynn Morris regarding the hold and Furniture/Today's reporting on that issue kept all of us going without stop."

Frank Kelly, director of sales for Elk Technologies' consumer fire retardant products, also endorsed the move. "This is clearly a health and safety issue and those issues were protected in the original exemption."

John Dottore, a DuPont executive working on that company's FR mattress material program, said the lifting of the freeze "will help clear uncertainty in the marketplace and will let mattress manufacturers focus their efforts on meeting FR regulations. It will allow mattress manufacturers to complete their testing and evaluation of FR materials, select a cost-effective solution, and initiate supply contracts with key suppliers."

FR suppliers, in turn, will establish supply needs and fill the pipeline with sufficient inventory in anticipation of large-scale demand for FR materials, Dottore added.

For her part, Morris said she was pleased to learn the pending mattress regulations are moving forward.

"I'm grateful the governor has seen the importance of these regulations and the need for them to be exempted from the regulatory freeze," she said.

Morris also said she expects the pending regulations to become law in the near future, with the January 2005 enforcement date.

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California fire regulations stay on track

Jan 12, 2004

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