The ins and outs of mattress flammability
By Furniture Today Staff -- Furniture Today, November 23, 2003
While many key decisions on new open-flame mattress standards have yet to be made, the outlines of the flammability issue are becoming clear. Activities are occurring on a number of fronts. The issue is "heating up," industry observers say. Next year will be pivotal on the flammability front.
Here's a look at some of the key questions confronting the bedding industry. The answers were compiled by Furniture/Today Executive Editor David Perry and are based on his reporting and on a variety of industry sources, including past coverage of the issue in Bedtimes, the International Sleep Products Assn.'s business journal.
Q: Hasn't the bedding industry already addressed mattress flammability issues?
A: Yes, in the 1970s. Back then, statistical data apparently showed that 60% to 70% of fires involving bedding were caused by the inadvertent contact of bedding with carelessly discarded cigarettes. The mattress industry worked with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission to develop the first standard in mattress flammability. That standard, which went into effect in 1974, has been quite successful in reducing mattress fires caused by cigarette ignition.
Q: So why is the flammability issue heating up now?
A: The current flammability issue began smoldering several years ago. At an event sponsored by the bedding industry's Sleep Products Safety Council in 1993, the chairman of the CPSC expressed concern about a five-year trend showing an increase in the percentage of bedding fires caused by open-flame ignition. In 1988, for the first time, the number of cigarette-caused bedding fires dropped below the number caused by small open flames.
Responding to those concerns, SPSC members met with CPSC staff to learn more about open-flame fires. Little was known then about the sequence of events that caused such fires.
In 1996, two separate studies of open-flame fires began. One of the key findings of the two studies was that about 60% of bedroom fires were caused by the initial ignition of bedclothes by a small open flame.
In 1998, the bedding industry agreed to fund a scientific study to address the flammability of residential bed sets under the conditions of real-life open-flame ignition. That study found, among other things, that fire conditions produced by burning bedclothes (mattress pads, pillows, blankets and comforters) are much larger than the match, candle or lighter that may have been used to start the original fire.
Q: What role is California playing?
A: A big one. California has been in the forefront of developing flammability standards for home furnishings for more than 30 years. In 1970, for example, it enacted a law requiring all mattresses sold in the state to be flame retardant. In 1999, the California Bureau of Home Furnishings announced a major revision of California's mandatory flammability requirements for residential furniture.
In August 2001, Gov. Gray Davis signed Assembly Bill 603 into law. It says a new open-flame mattress flammability standard must be in place by Jan. 1, 2004. That standard, which has not yet been finalized, could become, in effect, a new national standard for mattress flammability. California now says it will begin enforcing that law on Jan. 1, 2005.
Q: What is the federal government doing about the open-flame issue?
A: In October 2001, the CPSC published an Advance Notice of Proposed Rule-Making, initiating a move toward a mandatory federal standard for open-flame resistance of residential bed sets. CPSC continues to work on mattress flammability issues. CPSC Chairman Hal Stratton supports a national standard that is similar or compatible to the mattress standards being developed in California.
Q: When would a federal standard go into effect?
A: No timetable has been established, so it's anybody's guess. Some suggest a federal standard won't appear any earlier than late 2004, and it easily could be 2005. Stratton says he wants CPSC to act as quickly as possible on mattress flammability.
Q: What effect would a federal open-flame standard have on the California standard?
A: It would pre-empt it. The federal standard would apply to mattresses sold in every state, including California.
Q: Won't it be awkward if there is a new standard enforced in California as of Jan. 1, 2005, but a federal standard does not go into effect for months or even a year or so after that date?
A: Yes. The CPSC would like to have a single standard, but it will have to act quickly to put one into effect before Jan. 1, 2005.
Q: How will bedding producers with national distribution respond to the new California standards? Will they make two different types of bedding, one for sale only in California, the other for sale in the rest of the country?
A: Probably not. A national producer that makes two different lines would confront a variety of legal and logistical problems — and face the possibility of a public-relations nightmare in attempting to explain why some of its products are less fire resistant than others.
Q: What about regional bedding producers?
A: Even though they don't ship products into California and thus won't have to meet that standard, these companies would face the same legal and public-relations issues as any national producer who chooses to make two product lines.
A regional producer who ignores the California standard would be in the difficult position of explaining to its retailers — and to the courts if it is sued — why it isn't making mattresses that meet a widely publicized flammability standard that many other bedding producers are meeting.
Q: What will the new California flammability standards do to the cost of bedding?
A: The early feeling in the industry was that the new FR standards could add $100 to $200 to retail bedding prices. But that was based on responding to the earlier, more stringent standards proposed in California. It's not possible to make blanket statements about how much prices might rise. In announcing that its 2004 lines would include FR protection, Serta declined to say how much that protection would cost. It stressed that its bedding lines will continue to be highly competitive in the market.
Q: What are the wholesale costs of meeting the California standards?
A: The cost of additional fire-resistant materials alone has been estimated to be in the range of $20 per mattress. With about 20 million mattresses sold last year, that is a $400 million additional annual cost if all bedding producers meet the California standard. There could be more additional costs in the mattress assembly process. And that figure doesn't include the cost of treating box springs. Most of the cost of adding FR materials will be in the mattress, suppliers say. But some FR protection should be added to the box spring, some suppliers say.
Also, it is important to note that those prices are estimates. And many expect the prices for FR materials to drop as production runs ramp up.
Q: Is the bedding industry supportive of new flammability standards?
A: Yes. The SPSC, created by ISPA in 1986, has taken a proactive position on flammability, partnering with key players to advance the cause of making mattresses safer. The results of these partnerships have been substantial. From 1980 to 1998, bedroom fires dropped 68% and related deaths by 52%, according to the CPSC. And long before the SPSC was formed, in the early 1970s, the bedding industry was working with regulators on mattress flammability issues.
Q: What, specifically, has the SPSC done?
A: A voluntary program launched by SPSC in 1987 has placed safety hangtags on more than 160 million mattresses. Also, the SPSC worked with the National Assn. of State Fire Marshals to study residential mattress fires, and continues to work with and fund various research studies at the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology.
Q: How can I learn more about this issue?
A: Furniture/Today has created a separate flammability Web resource that contains all of the major flammability reporting the newspaper has presented since October 2002, when the issue began to heat up. Go to the Furniture/Today home page — www.furnituretoday.com — and look for the flammability icon in the navigation bar on the left.
Also, you can check the SPSC Web site, www.safesleep.org, for updates as well as tips on talking to consumers about flammability issues.
Bedding producers, suppliers or retailers with specific questions or comments on open-flame regulations should send them via e-mail to spsc@sleepproducts.org.
Detailed information on flammability also is available at ISPA's Bedtimes Web site, www.sleepproducts.org/bedtimes/.
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The ins and outs of mattress flammability
Feb 16, 2003
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