I want one FR standard, CPSC chief tells ISPA
Fire marshals' letter questions Calif. regs
By David Perry -- Furniture Today, September 22, 2003
Nashville, Tenn. — The likelihood there will be one U.S. standard on mattress flammability increased as the industry gathered here for the International Sleep Products Assn.'s Industry Conference.
The chairman of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission said he wants CPSC to adopt a standard that is "similar or compatible" to a standard being developed in California.
"The goal is to avoid two different regulations," said Hal Stratton, adding he couldn't find anyone who didn't think California's revised standard is viable.
But in a letter to the editor of Furniture/Today, released a few days after Stratton made his comments, Don Bliss, president of the National Assn. of State Fire Marshals, questioned the revised standards that California regulators proposed after discussions with the bedding industry, saying the FR standards originally proposed are "most likely to save lives and protect property from fire.
"We have seen evidence that some companies cannot meet these pass/fail criteria while others can," Bliss wrote. "Americans are more likely to die in mattress fires than in jet airline crashes, yet we do not hear jet engine manufacturers asking for relaxed rules because some can and some cannot meet U.S. Federal Aviation Administration safety requirements. The fact that some manufacturers can meet the tougher TB 603 standards suggests that all must do so because it can be done.
"There is no question that the weaker version of the standard ignores the real-world circumstances that are most worrisome, e.g. escape by the elderly, the very young and the physically challenged, and fire department responses in rural communities. Time very much counts," he wrote. (For the full text of the letter, see the flammability section of the Furniture/Today Web site, www.furnituretoday.com.)
California originally proposed an hour-long burn test. It revised its proposal to call for a 30-minute test, a move many in the bedding industry praised.
In his comments at the ISPA meeting, Stratton repeatedly said he hopes CPSC will deal with mattress flammability issues as quickly as possible. He said the goal is to develop a national flammability standard by January 2005, the date when California says it will begin enforcing its mattress flammability regulations, which are now in the final stages of review.
A national standard would pre-empt any state standards.
Stratton is one of three CPSC commissioners and said he was speaking only for himself. He recommended that California regulators join in CPSC's current proceeding, rather than filing a new petition. California officials have said they are considering filing a petition that would ask CPSC to adopt the California standard as the national standard. The process of dealing with such a petition would be a lengthy one, Stratton has said.
He said in Nashville it is "not a bad idea" for California to seek an "exemption from pre-emption" that would enable that state to move ahead with its own standards. Perhaps California would agree that it is pre-empted from acting on its own until CPSC moves ahead, Stratton said.
He said CPSC and California regulators are in close contact on flammability issues.
Stratton wasn't the only speaker at the ISPA meeting who commented on flammability issues. Attorney Allen Lockerman of Hawkins & Parnell in Atlanta said bedding producers who don't make state-of-the-art FR products "run a great risk" if litigation occurs.
The pending regulations in California should put all producers on notice to manufacture products that meet those standards, he said. Juries will not be sympathetic to producers who make beds that fall short of stricter FR standards, even if those beds aren't made or sold in California, he predicted. Juries "don't want excuses" for such actions, he said.
Lockerman said his comments were general in nature and urged producers to consult their own lawyers on the issues.
