Seminar draws crowd to examine new regs
By David Perry -- Furniture Today, February 23, 2004
NORTHBROOK, Ill. — NORTHBROOK, Ill. — Many of the leading figures on the mattress flammability front gathered here earlier this month to talk shop.
The International Sleep Products Assn. hosted a sellout crowd for its Shoptalk: Flammability seminar. About 100 attendees, including representatives of five of the industry's Top 10 bedding producers, were told that California regulators are on track to begin enforcing Jan. 1, 2005, that state's precedent-setting open-flame mattress standards.
One flammability expert described the California standards as the toughest residential mattress flammability law in the world.
Attendees also were told the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission could have a key mattress flammability briefing package ready for its commissioners by this summer. CPSC has not said when it will implement a national standard on mattress flammability. A national standard would take precedence over the California law.
The seminar also featured dozens of suggestions for bedding producers on how to make bedding that will meet California's new law. In addition, more than a dozen suppliers of fire-resistant materials were on hand to talk about their offerings.
The session here was the third stop on ISPA's four-city Shoptalk: Flammability tour. Earlier stops were in San Francisco and Los Angeles, and the tour concluded with a well-attended session in Charlotte, N.C.
The daylong program at the Hilton Northbrook, just outside Chicago, attracted a who's who of national bedding producers — not surprising since five national bedding companies are based in the Chicago area.
The list of those in attendance included Spring Air, King Koil, Therapedic, Restonic, Springwall, Bemco, Symbol, Englander, Standard, United Sleep Products and VyMaC, among others.
Serta, the only national bedding producer to introduce FR bedding lines and based in nearby Itasca, was conspicuous by its absence.
A highlight of the Northbrook event was a field trip to the nearby facilities of Underwriters Laboratories. There, UL officials conducted two mattress burns, one of a fire-resistant sleep set and one of a non-FR sleep set. The two burn tests gave attendees a firsthand look at the benefits of providing FR protection (see page at right).
Videos of similar mattress burns were aired at the other seminars.
