Few sparks fly at bedding fire-safety hearings
By David Perry -- Furniture Today, April 27, 2003
Diamond Bar, Calif. — Tough new open-flame mattress standards proposed in California would make bedding less affordable to consumers, shut down some California mattress producers, and burden the bedding industry, speakers said at a public hearing here last week.
More than a dozen speakers took the podium at the second of two hearings by the California Bureau of Home Furnishings, which has proposed the new mattress flammability standards.
A crowd of about 100 packed the hearing room here for a 75-minute session that generated fewer sparks than had been expected. California bedding producers generally criticized or questioned the proposed standards, while suppliers of fire-resistant materials mostly said they support the standards and are preparing to meet the industry's need for new FR products.
Officials of the bureau, who conducted the hearing in this town about 20 miles west of Los Angeles and a similar one earlier in the week in San Francisco, will weigh comments from the hearings as they consider if they should make changes in the proposed standards, which are to go into effect on Jan. 1.
The standards could be made final this November, the bureau has said.
The International Sleep Products Assn. believes that won't give the industry enough time to produce new FR lines by Jan. 1, a point echoed at the final hearing by Ron Hoesterey of Royal Mattress, a Los Angeles-area bedding producer. The bureau should consider phasing in the new standards over a period of two to three years, he suggested.
Immediate implementation would place an "unrealistic burden on the industry," Hoesterey said. He also said the costs of making new FR beds would be "not insignificant" for consumers, and urged the bureau to "find a way not to eliminate smaller producers" with overly restrictive and costly standards.
Priscilla Gargolis, co-owner of a Corona, Calif., mattress producer, said the new regulations could increase wholesale costs by 30% to 50%. "We are concerned about the future of our business" if the standards are implemented, she said.
Neil Friedman of Eastman House of California, another California bedding maker, said FR producers haven't given mattress makers a clear picture of the costs of complying with the standards. "There are a lot of questions," Friedman said. "Please, I implore you to listen to the concerns of the smaller producers."
Bedding sales representative Bruce Glassman said the proposed standards would place an unfair hardship on lower-end consumers. "Aren't those the very people the (California) bill was to protect?" he asked. He said a lower-end twin-sized bed would increase in retail cost from $100 to $160 — a 60% jump — under the new regulations.
Lynn Morris, chief of the Bureau of Home Furnishings, who conducted the hearing, said she was surprised that more people didn't testify at the two hearings. But both hearings attracted many of the key figures on the flammability issue.
ISPA has urged the bureau to reduce its proposed one-hour flammability test to 30 minutes, a point it made again at the hearing in San Francisco. ISPA representatives did not speak at the Diamond Bar hearing.
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