Mattress flammability issue heating up again
By David Perry -- Furniture Today, July 23, 2006
High Point — The mattress flammability issue is heating up across the United States, in Canada and in China.
Bedding producers and suppliers around the world are feeling the ripples of a tough new federal open flame standard for mattresses sold in the United States, which goes into effect next July.
Suppliers of fire-resistant materials say that U.S. producers are approaching the issue with a greater sense of urgency. The signs of accelerating interest are growing.
The International Sleep Products Assn. recently held another series of FR SHOPtalk seminars, all of which played to sold-out crowds. The sessions, held in Charlotte, N.C., Philadelphia, Minneapolis and Los Angeles, brought bedding producers and FR experts and suppliers together.
ISPA moved quickly to add another SHOPtalk seminar, this one to be held at the Omni Mandalay in Irving, Texas, on Sept. 13. ISPA said registration forms for that session will soon go online on its Web site at www.sleepproducts.org.
There have been these other recent developments:
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The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission said retailers that sell mattresses contrary to test certifications on the federal law label may be in violation of the new federal standard. The label must state whether the mattress is intended for use with a foundation, without a foundation, or either with or without a foundation. According to CPSC, selling a mattress without the corresponding foundation would be a violation of the standard if the mattress did not meet the flammability criteria when tested alone or with the different foundation, ISPA said.
The only way a retailer will know that a mattress will meet the flammability requirements is to sell the mattress as the manufacturer intends by the required label designation, ISPA said. -
Work has begun on a Canadian open-flame mattress standard. ISPA said a working group has been formed by UL Canada to prepare a mattress open-flame standard for Canada.
The standard is expected to incorporate the same test method specified in the open-flame standard already in effect in California and in the upcoming U.S. standard. ISPA and its Sleep Products Safety Council will be part of the working group. At this point, the Canadian standard is viewed as a voluntary national standard that the Canadian government could later convert into a mandatory standard, ISPA said. -
Bedding producers and suppliers in China say they are stepping up their efforts to comply with the upcoming U.S. standard. Bedding made in China and shipped into the U.S. market will have to meet the new standard. In addition, those imported mattresses will place additional documentation demands on the importers.
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A key figure in the federal government's successful push to add open-flame mattress protection has retired. Hal Stratton, who has hailed the new federal standard as an important step in consumer safety, left his post as chairman of the CPSC, effective July 15.
In a letter to ISPA, Stratton praised the association.
"I very much appreciate the courtesy and cooperation your organization has shown me and to the CPSC during my tenure," Stratton wrote. "This cooperation, in my opinion, has resulted in an improved state of consumer product safety in our country."
Stratton was an influential figure on the FR front, regularly speaking at ISPA events.
"Stratton will surely be missed," ISPA said in reporting on Stratton's departure from CPSC.
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