Sofa safety likely to be hotter topic in 2010
Gary Evans, Senior editor -- Furniture Today, March 22, 2010
Sofa safety has helped a number of people make political hay in recent months, particularly in the wake of the devastating Charleston, S.C., furniture store fire that took the lives of nine firefighters.
As recently as last month, the former superintendent of education for South Carolina, Inez Tenebaum, told the Charleston Post and Courier that making upholstered furniture fires less deadly is a must-do for the Consumer Product Safety Commission.
Her words take on a lot of importance because she's now the person who heads that federal agency. “Preventing loss of life from upholstered furniture fires is one of my top priorities,” said Tanebaum, who wants to get new fire safety laws enacted “as soon as possible.”
That's certainly understandable, particularly for someone who hails from South Carolina. But when it comes to taking action on furniture flammability, the regulatory agency Tanebaum oversees takes action about as fast and as effectively as the U.S. Senate. Which is to say it moves like molasses on a really cold day. So good luck on that one.
Just off the top of my head, the CPSC has been working on this for at least 30 years. As far as I know, they're as close to their goal now as they were then. While CPSC made progress on mattress flammability, the only gains on upholstery safety seem to be societal — fewer people smoke, many states have required that cigarettes be burn resistant, and most houses have smoke detectors. Upholstery fire deaths are said to be down 40% since the 1980s.
Nonetheless, talk about more regulations abounds. Chip Limehouse, representing Charleston in the South Carolina legislature, wants to regulate the sale of “highly flammable furniture,” which is basically anything constructed of foam.
But would that have helped save the poor firefighters who perished in a fire whose heat was said to be over 1,400 degrees and emitted lethal gases, including cyanide? I can see the necessity for more fire-resistant materials to prevent home fires. But how would you keep a sofa from igniting in a full-blown fire that started elsewhere? Build it of concrete? Could you keep case goods from burning in a fire that intense? Could you keep anything from burning in that kind of heat?
A better preventative might have been to restrict where employees smoke, since the blaze was likely caused by a discarded cigarette into debris on a loading dock, though no official cause has been released. Or to require sprinklers, which the Charleston building lacked.
The volatility of petroleum-based materials in upholstery had a lot to do with the largest toll taken on firefighters since the terrorist attacks of 9-11. But when it comes to pointing fingers in the Charleston tragedy, federal and state politicians should use a lot of fingers.
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Grant to fund furniture flammability study
Jul 13, 2008 -
CPSC offers uph. FR reg
Mar 9, 2008 -
CPSC offers uph. FR reg
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