Flammability timeline
By Furniture Today Staff -- Furniture Today, November 23, 2003
1970: California legislature enacts legislation requiring all mattresses sold in the state to be fire retardant.
Early 1970s: The bedding industry works with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission to develop the first federal standard on mattress flammability.
1973: The Federal Mattress Flammability Standard is passed. It requires that all mattresses made or sold in the United States resist ignition from a lighted cigarette.
1986: The International Sleep Products Assn. creates the Sleep Products Safety Council to support research and industry changes aimed at reducing the hazards associated with mattresses and other sleep products.
1996: SPSC partners with the National Assn. of State Fire Marshals on an in-field study of residential mattress fires. Following the study, the mattress industry begins discussions about the possibility of developing a federal standard addressing mattress resistance to open flames.
1999: SPSC funds a multi-phased open flame research study in partnership with the CPSC and the National Institute of Standards and Technology. This study yields statistical information that will later be used by the California Bureau of Home Furnishings in developing California's new open-flame mattress flammability standards.
August 2001: California passes AB 603, which says that stringent open-flame standards will become law on Jan. 1, 2004.
October 2001: The CPSC votes to issue an Advance Notice of Proposed Rule-making on a federal standard for resistance to open-flame ignition of mattresses.
October 2002: Flammability experts meet at an ISPA Industry Conference to discuss the bedding industry's work on flammability and to hear from regulators in California and Washington, D.C. Companies making flame-resistant products exhibit their wares.
February 2003: California proposes stringent new open flame mattress flammability standards that include a one-hour burn test.
April 2003: California holds hearings on its proposed standards. The proposed one-hour burn test is criticized by industry groups.
Also in April, Carolina Mattress Guild of Thomasville, N.C., becomes the first bedding producer to introduce bedding lines that it says meet new FR standards proposed in California.
May 2003: CPSC says it could take up to two years to review California's proposed FR standards. CPSC Chairman Hal Stratton says later that month that his commission will act as quickly as possible.
July 2003: California regulators, after hearing from a variety of industry groups and individuals, issue revised flammability proposals. The one-hour burn test is reduced to 30 minutes. The maximum heat release rate is raised from 150 kilowatts to 200 kilowatts. ISPA hails the revised proposals. So do leading bedding producers.
September 2003: Serta becomes the first national bedding producer to introduce FR bedding lines. It says its 2004 lines will incorporate its proprietary new FireBlocker technology. Other producers say they will watch developments on the Serta lines closely, as they evaluate when to introduce their own FR lines.
Also in September, CPSC's Stratton attends an ISPA conference and says he wants one FR standard.
October 2003: California regulators ask CPSC to adopt the California proposals as a national standard. There is no immediate public response from CPSC.
Also in October, Sen. Fritz Hollings, a Democrat from South Carolina, introduces the American Home Fire Safety Act, which calls on CPSC to quickly adopt FR standards for mattresses and upholstery.
Sometime in November: California's proposed FR standards are expected to be finalized.
Jan. 1, 2004: California's new open-flame mattress flammability standard becomes law. California says it will begin enforcing the law on Jan. 1, 2005.
Sometime in 2004 or 2005: A federal open-flame standard is expected to go into effect. It will preempt the California standard.
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A brief history of mattress flammability
Feb 16, 2003
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