Are you safe sitting on your sofa?
By: Amy Willbanks
Textile Fabric Consultants, Inc.
Currently, most of the regulations involving flammability
codes for residential upholstery fabrics are voluntary. The Upholstered Furniture Action
Council (UFAC) was created in 1974 to develop measures for making upholstered furniture
more flame resistant to smoldering cigarettes. The UFAC is composed of furniture
manufacturers, retailers and suppliers. They conduct ongoing research to improve the
quality of upholstery fabrics and they encourage industry wide compliance with the
voluntary standards.
Approximately 80% of all fires are home fires and about 90% of
fire fatalities occur in home fires. Cigarettes are the leading cause of home fires. The
UFAC has aided in the 76.8% decline of cigarette fires over the last 20 years. The
reduction has been accomplished by implementing consumer education programs, which address
fire safety issues, improving fabric manufacturing processes, and through a decline in the
number of smokers.
Even with the decline in cigarette related home fires, the
Consumer Products Safety Commission (CPSC) is currently proposing a mandatory regulation
on upholstery fabrics. This regulation would require that all upholstery fabrics be
treated with flame retardant chemicals that are possibly toxic. These chemicals would be
the same or similar to those that were banned from children's sleepwear due to the
possibility that they could cause cancer. Germany and other European nations have already
banned the use of some of these chemicals. There are studies currently being done on the
harmful effects of the chemicals.
The UFAC does not want the regulation to become mandatory due to
the problems that would be caused by it. The flame retardants would possibly be harmful
not only to the consumers who purchase the furniture, but the textile and furniture
employees as well. The chemicals would increase the price of furniture, possibly causing
families to put off buying new furniture. The chemicals would also effect the hand and the
beauty of the fabrics.
There are several methods that could be employed to decrease the
risk of fires without putting the industry employees' and consumers' health at risk and
without increasing furniture prices. An alternative to the regulation would be to continue
and increase the current fire safety education programs. Encourage consumers to buy smoke
detectors, which are approximately 85% effective in giving the first alert of a home fire.
Consumers should look for the UFAC gold tag on furniture. If this tag appears on a piece
of furniture it means that it has been manufactured to resist smoldering cigarettes.
