ISPA applauds reforms to product safety act

David Perry -- Furniture Today, August 8, 2011

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Recent changes to federal consumer product safety laws represent an important and hard fought victory for the mattress industry, the bedding industry's trade association says.

The International Sleep Products Assn., based here, applauded passage of reforms to the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act, a measure which was passed in 2008 and has concerned ISPA officials ever since that time.

ISPA and other consumer product trade associations have been pushing for changes in the CPSIA. The reforms recently approved by large majorities in the House and Senate make a number of helpful changes to the CPSIA that should benefit mattress manufacturers, ISPA said.

The reforms require that the Consumer Product Safety Commission assess the costs associated with third-party testing requirements for products including children's mattresses. They also add new protections to promote accuracy in the consumer data base created by the CPSIA. And they make important changes to CPSIA's lead and phthalates restrictions, ISPA said.

Since the CPSIA's enactment three years ago, ISPA has lobbied both Congress and the CPSC to implement the sweeping provisions of the law in a way that would not impose needless burdens on U.S. manufacturers, ISPA said.

"ISPA applauds Congress for finally altering several provisions of the CPSIA that imposed costly and redundant requirements on manufacturers, but did not improve consumer safety," said Ryan Trainer, ISPA's president. "This victory for our industry will add more common sense to the consumer product rules that the mattress industry must meet without compromising product safety."

He said ISPA members played a key role in getting the reforms passed.

"The grassroots support of ISPA members that contacted their elected officials was key to this bill becoming a reality, and demonstrates what can be accomplished when an industry works together for the common good," Trainer said.