Morris: 'We need your help'
By David Perry -- Furniture Today, February 23, 2004
NORTHBROOK, Ill. — NORTHBROOK, Ill. — California, which has enacted a stringent open-flame mattress flammability law, will enforce that law in a "serious, rigorous and fair" manner, the state's top mattress regulator said here.
Lynn Morris, chief of the California Bureau of Home Furnishings, appealed to the bedding industry to support those enforcement efforts. "We need your help" to keep enforcement fair, she said.
Bureau inspectors will be checking to see that new law labels for mattresses and futons manufactured on or after Jan. 1, 2005, when enforcement begins, are on the bedding.
Morris said bureau inspectors also will conduct unannounced inspections of retailers and bedding producers to obtain random samples of bedding products for testing to see if they are in compliance with the law.
She said the bureau has several tools at its disposal:
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Notice of violation. This is issued by a bureau inspector after an examination of the business. It specifically identifies violations of the law, and gives instructions for compliance. Follow-up visits are conducted to confirm compliance.
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Administrative citation and fine. This is issued by the bureau chief if the notice of violation is not addressed. The fine assessed is up to $2,500 per inspection. An informal conference with the bureau chief may be requested.
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Statewide withhold-from-sale order. This is issued to eliminate non-compliant products from the California market. It is issued after a notice of violation and after two samples of the same product fail testing. The manufacturer or importer is notified the product is not to be sold in California and is required to submit a list of their customers for notification. The order is lifted when products become compliant and non-compliant products are destroyed or shipped out of California.
Other enforcement options, Morris said, include referral to a district attorney for civil prosecution or a temporary restraining order, or referral to the state attorney general for license revocation.
Morris said the bureau is sensitive to retailers' inventory management issues. Retailers who have bedding products manufactured before Jan. 1, 2005, in inventory can sell those products after the law goes into effect in January, she said.
In response to a question, Morris said there is no "cutoff date" by which retailers must complete the sale of goods in inventory made before the law goes into effect.
