FR uph. regs stymied
By Gary Evans -- Furniture Today, April 30, 2007
Greensboro, N.C. — Fire-safe cigarettes and smoke detectors are making more progress in decreasing upholstered furniture fire deaths than the federal government, yet to pass legislation on furniture flammability after more than a decade of trying.
Those were among several messages coming out of the annual flammability update seminar here last week sponsored by the American Home Furnishings Alliance, and moderated by Joe Ziolkowski, executive director of the Upholstered Furniture Action Council.
Several players in upholstery-related fire safety spoke at the event. One was Dale Ray, project director for the federal Consumer Product Safety Commission, a panel that has been without a quorum since January and without a chairman since Hal Stratton left last July.
Ray said his agency will concentrate on research and writing reports and communicating with stakeholders this year.
A prospective commission member, Michael E. Baroody, has been nominated by President Bush and will go before a congressional subcommittee early next month.
Ray said there was an average of 4,000 non-intentional fires involving upholstery each year from 2001 to 2003, causing an annual average of 330 deaths, 580 injuries and $115 million in property damages.
Lorraine Carli, vice president of communications at the National Fire Protection Assn., said that New York, Vermont and California now have fire-safe cigarette laws, and that Illinois, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Oregon and Kentucky have passed laws that are awaiting the signatures of governors.
A number of other states have legislation pending, she said.
Fire-safe cigarettes are made with paper wrappers that include banded "speed bumps" that cause unattended cigarettes to self-extinguish. Over 29% of the U.S. population is now or soon will be covered by states that have proposed laws requiring them.
The safer smokes are one of the factors in a decline of deaths and subsequent injuries due to upholstery fires, according to Dr. Mark Berkman, vice president of California-based CRI, an antitrust, litigation and competition consulting company
"Is there a need for flammability (laws)?" asked Berkman, an expert in microeconomics. "The answer is no."
He asked his audience to consider the risk factors: One in eight million people may die because of a small-open- flame fire — the kind caused by candles or kids playing with matches — while one in four million might be hit by lightning. He said the risk of dying from a cigarette fire is one in 1.9 million compared to one in 450,000 for drowning in a swimming pool.
"We're not talking about big risks," Berkman said. "And you have to think about that in terms of making policy."
The death and injury rate due to upholstery fires has been declining steadily because of a "dramatic" decrease in smoking, with only 20% of the U.S. adult population still lighting up, he said. At the same time, he noted that there has been a greater use of leather and wool for seating, with both materials having a higher ignition resistance.
In addition, Berkman cited the industry's compliance with voluntary regulations administered through the Upholstered Furniture Action Council that have been in effect for over two decades.
Noting the government's goal for a 20% reduction in upholstery fire fatalities during a 15-year period ending in 2013, Berkman said more effective policies would be a federal fire-safe cigarette regulation, which "the states may take care of themselves," along with campaigns to promote smoke detector use and maintenance, and against smoking.
"Some states are very aggressive (with anti-smoking programs) and have been very effective," he said.
Adopting those policies would have more immediate benefits than upholstery flammability regulations because it would take years to phase out upholstery currently in homes, said Berkman.
While federal rules on upholstered furniture flammability seem stymied, Allyson Tenney, CPSC project manager for mattress and bedclothes standards, noted that new laws go into effect July 1 and affect all mattresses made and sold in the United States after that date.
For the period 1999 to 2002, there were annual averages of 15,300 mattress and bedding fires, causing 350 deaths and 1,750 injuries a year, she said.
