New flammability rules coming, in a year or two
By Larry Thomas, Bedding Editor -- Furniture Today, November 12, 2001
The Consumer Product Safety Commission has told the mattress industry to get ready for new flammability standards — but hold off on printing those new hangtags for a few years.
The federal agency, which has been studying the issue since 1998, recently published an "advanced notice of proposed rule making," which means they intend to adopt new standards. But it could be another two years, or more, before the CPSC decides on the specific standards and testing procedures.
The agency said the new standards will address open-flame ignition sources such as candles, matches and lighters, but stressed they will not replace standards in effect since 1973 that require mattresses to resist ignition from smoldering cigarettes.
Russ Abolt, president of the International Sleep Products Assn., which represents the bulk of the nation's mattress producers, said his group has been working with the CPSC from the beginning. He's satisfied with the progress thus far.
"A mandatory standard will help prevent fires … and protect the reputable producers who are in compliance," Abolt said. "We take no issue with the (rule-making notice)."
He said he's especially pleased the CPSC has recognized the link between mattress fires and sheets, pillows and blankets. ISPA long has maintained that any new standard should include these top-of-the-bed materials, and the commission's rule-making notice seems to indicate the group will do just that.
"The presence of these materials significantly affects the character of the fire," the notice said. "In some incidents, the small open flame may ignite the mattress directly. But it is more common that the smaller flame source initially ignites the bedding, and these materials serve as a larger ignition source for the mattress. Thus, an effective standard must consider the interplay between the mattress and the bedding."
Because top-of-the-bed materials can be large ignition sources, the notice said it wouldn't be reasonable to require mattresses to resist all open-flame ignitions. However, CPSC is aiming to lessen the intensity of such fires and prevent flashover, the point where a fire becomes so intense that all exposed surfaces ignite almost simultaneously.
Abolt said a series of tests sponsored by the Sleep Products Safety Commission, an arm of ISPA, has provided very useful information for the CPSC, and he believes a second phase of testing could prove just as valuable. The commission has said it won't propose any specific standards until the second phase of testing, which is being conducted by the non-partisan National Institute of Standards and Technology, is completed next fall.
He doubts CPSC will develop any specifics for several months after the second phase is finished. That means it probably will be mid-2003, at the earliest, before the agency publishes its proposed standards and compliance procedures.
And once those are published in the Federal Register, mattress manufacturers and other interested parties will have several weeks to make comments and suggestions before the final rules are adopted.
