FR compliance lacking?
Expert claims most mfrs. fall short
By David Perry -- Furniture Today, March 31, 2008
Baltimore — A majority of U.S. mattress producers aren't in compliance with the federal mattress flammability standard that took effect last summer, a bedding consultant said here.
Scott Frisch, president of Frisch Enterprises, which does fire resistance consulting work, said that the "silent majority" of bedding producers don't comply with the standard, which requires mattresses to pass a stringent burn test and producers to keep an extensive array of records.
Other panelists at the FR seminar, hosted by the International Sleep Products Assn. on the eve of the ISPA Expo here, didn't directly discuss his assertion. But one other panelist, Bob Sabalaskey of the Lilly Management Group, did agree that not all bedding producers are in compliance.
A number of FR suppliers, questioned later by Furniture/Today about Frisch's assertion, privately agreed with his his assessment. They said, however, that failure to comply with the record-keeping and quality assurance requirements of the standard does not necessarily mean the bedding producers are making unsafe mattresses.
Attending the seminar as an observer was Mary Toro, associate director of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission's Office of Compliance, a regular at mattress industry FR events. At ISPA's industry conference last fall, she gave the industry generally good marks for seeking to comply with the standard.
Asked by Furniture/Today for an update, Toro responded: "We know most manufacturers are trying pretty hard to comply with a complex standard. We are trying to work with them."
She acknowledged that there have been "some failures" of the burn tests, a point that was also made by ISPA's executive vice president, Ryan Trainer, who moderated the seminar.
But much of the focus at the seminar was on the more mundane aspects of the federal FR standard, which is designed to save hundreds of lives each year by giving consumers time to escape a bedroom fire.
While the burn test is the most dramatic component of the standard — a sleep set is exposed to open flames and must resist ignition for 30 minutes — issues like record-keeping and preparation for an inspection are the main problem areas these days, according to Heather Sonabend, compliance officer for the CPSC, which worked with the mattress industry to create the FR mattress standard.
She sounded like an office manager as she provided guidance to the 75 people attending the seminar.
"You need to understand how your records are organized," she said. "Your goal is to have complete, organized and easily accessible records that meet the requirements of the standard." No specific format for the records is required, Sonabend said: "Find a system that works for you."
Sonabend said that CPSC's FR inspections usually are unannounced. CPSC's goal is not to prepare producers for an inspection, she said. Rather, it is to encourage producers to comply with the FR standard. She also urged the manufacturers to think about who in their company is best equipped to answer questions that would be posed during a CPSC inspection.
Sabalaskey, vice president of manufacturing and product engineering at the Lilly Management Group, a consulting firm with extensive experience in the FR arena, picked up on that last point. He noted that bedding producers usually have only one FR point person. That is a mistake, Sabalaskey said. "CPSC won't call to see if your FR person will be there," he said. What will happen, he asked, if that FR expert is sick, on vacation or traveling?
Sabalaskey also took a look to the future, predicting an increase in the number of CPSC audits. "If you are not compliant," he said, "get compliant." He added, "I don't think we are there yet at 100% compliance."
Neither Toro nor Sonabend would provide details on the number of FR inspections that CPSC has conducted or plans to conduct. Sonabend said the agency has "a robust enforcement strategy" that is producers, retailers and importers, who must meet the FR standard with the beds they ship into the U.S.
