UL testing mattress flammability
By David Perry -- Furniture Today, November 3, 2003
Northbrook, Ill. — Underwriters Laboratories has joined the growing field of companies offering flammability tests on mattresses.
The testing lab, based here, is one of about half a dozen U.S. labs capable of conducting tests for California's proposed stringent mattress flammability standard known as Technical Bulletin 603.
The California standard becomes law in January 2004, and California regulators will begin enforcing the standard in January 2005.
As a number of bedding producers step up their fire-resistant tests, UL officials are touting the capabilities of their lab.
"UL has one of the most comprehensive fire-protection capabilities in the world," said Tom Chapin, UL's strategic business unit general manager for fire. "With 150 fire-testing standards and 750 different product test categories, UL is confident that its expert fire-testing capabilities will assist manufacturers in meeting the flammability requirements of TB 603 before the January 2005 deadline and provide a safer end-product to consumers."
Underwriters Laboratories is an independent, not-for-profit product safety certification organization that has been testing products and writing Standards for Safety for more than 100 years. UL tests more than 18,000 types of products annually, and more than 17 billion UL Marks appear on products each year.
UL said the federal Consumer Product Safety Commission notes that residential mattress fires represent one of the greatest causes of fire deaths in U.S. homes. Small open-flame ignition sources, many of which involve children playing with matches and cigarette lighters, cause about one-fifth of those fires, according to UL. Annual fire losses "associated with mattress and bedding products total 510 deaths, 2,290 injuries and $280.4 million dollars in property damage," according to a UL press release.
UL is located in the Chicago area, where a number of national bedding producers are based.
Serta, one of those producers, said last month it will incorporate its new FR system, FireBlocker, in its 2004 Perfect Sleeper, Perfect Night and Masterpiece product lines. Serta says its new system was "tested and results confirmed by Underwriters Laboratories."
