Nation: We should make safer bedding
By David Perry -- Furniture Today, April 20, 2003
Elk Grove Village, Ill. — If the bedding industry can make mattresses more fire-resistant in a cost-effective way, it should.
So says Spring Air President Jim Nation, who spoke candidly in an interview about the mattress flammability issue, something relatively few bedding producers have been willing to do.
"If the technology exists to make mattresses safer, especially if it is cost effective, not only we at Spring Air but the industry as a whole should do that," Nation said. That would mean everyone making bedding that meets California's proposed tough new open flame standards, scheduled to go into effect on Jan. 1.
"It's the moral thing to do," he said.
Spring Air intends to bring all its bedding into compliance with the California standards, Nation said. In the interview, he tackled several key flammability issues:
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On California's proposed one-hour burn test, in which beds are subjected to open flames for about a minute and monitored for up to an hour to see how intensely they burn: "That is a little bit of overkill. Half an hour is more reasonable. That should be enough time to escape a fire."
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On the maximum of 150 kilowatts of heat release that a burning bed cannot exceed in the test: "I would like to see that eased some. Fire is very unpredictable. Although plenty of our beds have passed the test, when we go back and retest we get a wider variation in the results than you would expect."
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On whether the proposed test favors one- or two-sided mattress constructions: "The tests show no real difference." But two-sided pillowtop mattresses are "a little more likely to fail."
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On how long the industry should have to develop more fire-resistant bedding: "We would like the state of California to give us more time (than Jan. 1), of course. The more time we have the better and more economical solutions we can develop. The solution we have in January of 2004 probably won't be the solution in two years."
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On the question of possible shortages of FR materials: "I'm not buying that. We've talked to enough suppliers to be comfortable that there will be enough materials available."
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