Flammability Updates & News

Retailers—Are Custom Futons Legal; Our New CPSC Director; Very Important SPSC Meeting; Where Do You Find the Law; And Other Concerns…

Hypoallergenic Retail Futons

One day, a customer walks into your store, and wants a hypoallergenic futon—no borate, no chemicals, nothing but the real, natural stuff! Is this legal? Even though such a futon might be made of the purest, most refined cotton batting and lint-free casing, it’s not going pass every test it has to.

What can you do?

Some of us retail and also manufacture futons—which makes filling such orders easier; others simply have a great relationship with their manufacturers, which helps, too. Yet, there is still that legal problem: what to do about compliance?

Very simply, you cannot sell a non-compliant futon unless it is requested by a customer under doctor’s orders. Neither can you keep futons made without retardant in inventory.

Truly borate-free, hypoallergenic futons are strictly one-off items

The customer has to give you a prescription or official note from a regular doctor—either a general practitioner or an allergy specialist (many states do not accept chiropractors or acupuncture therapists as having proper authority). Only then may you set about filling the order.

You have to keep that note in your records, for government perusal and/or in case the customer has a flammability accident involving the futon. Otherwise, you are liable for selling a noncompliant and potentially flammable futon.

If you are shy of taking on the responsibility, point the customer to a retailer who does handle such orders. Don’t know one? Peruse the pages of Futon Life, or, if you’re a member of the Futon Association, scan the Directory: you’ll find a few retailers who do.

Whether you make the sale, or make a referral to another retailer who makes the sale, you’ll have satisfied that customer.

New CPSC Director Harold “Hal” Stratton

In light of the recent confirmation of a new Chairman for the US Consumer Product Safety Commission, our industry is fortunate to be working with the CPSC, NIST, the SPSC and other distinguished organizations in developing a voluntary mattress and futon standard.

After a lengthy confirmation process that began last Fall, CPSC Chairman Harold Stratton began his first day in office on August 4 of this year.

According to articles in the Washington Post and USA Today, liberal legislators doubted Stratton’s fitness for the job because of his open championing of a free market and limited government.

Be that as it may, just four days into his new directorship, Stratton levied a $1 million fine on General Electric, as the final stroke in a recall of 3.1 million GE dishwashers that began in 1999. The fine was the result of GE’s long hesitation in reporting the problems with the dishwashers, which the company knew were prone to fire-safety problems since 1992, according to the USA Today story, which appeared under the byline of reporter Jayne O’Donnell in that newspaper’s August 8, 2002, edition.

Indeed, in the August 30 Washington Post story, entitled “New CPSC Chairman Has No Patience With Scofflaws,” reporter Caroline Mayer quotes the new Chairman as saying that companies with knowledge of defects in their products should “come to us immediately.” Defending his role (when he was the Attorney General of New Mexico) in developing the Rio Grande Foundation to help New Mexico develop policies based on a free-market approach and limited government, Stratton is quoted by the Post as saying, “Just because I believe taxes in New Mexico are too high, and…there’s too much regulation there, doesn’t mean…government doesn’t have a role in product safety….”

The Post cites Stratton as indicating that one of his major goals for the CPSC is to improve the response rate of product recalls (now from 20 to 60 percent), and that he would consider, but not necessarily accept off-hand, a previous proposal regarding the same problem. That proposal would require manufacturers to include a product safety card with each product sold, which consumers would return to the manufacturer, so that they could be notified directly by the manufacturer if a product recall were necessary.

Stratton revealed a balanced approach to such gambits, in saying, “We need data on whether that…will work. You just don’t go out and order people to spend millions…without sitting down and coming up with a real answer.”

USA TODAY quotes Mickey Barnett, one of Stratton’s former legal partners, as saying that Stratton will very likely focus on the most flagrant problems, but that “if there is someone doing something wrong, he will come down on them like a ton of bricks.”

As regards Senate measure S.2317.IS, “The Joseph Moakley Memorial Fire Safe Cigarette Act of 2002,” which would require the CPSC to enforce the development of fire-safe cigarettes, Chairman Stratton had “no position” as of the August 8 Washington Post interview.

Very Important: Sleep Products Safety Council Fall Seminar

The SPSC Fall Seminar in Aspen, Colorado, October 3-4, 2002, will be an important event for our industry. Invited speakers include CPSC Chairman Hal Stratton, California Bureau Chief Pam Rivette, National Association of State Fire Marshals President Don Bliss, Richard Gann of NIST, and SPSC Scientific Spokesman Gordon Damant.

We will learn the latest regarding the development toward a new national mattress standard; and the Cal Bureau’s latest findings in development of a new California standard; NIST, SPSC and CPSC will unveil the most recent research results; and we will be shown strategies and materials that can aid in compliance.

Also, with such a speakers list, there will be unparalleled “depth of understanding” regarding the problems we face as an industry in regard to compliance, as well as what the future may be. Case in point: in addition to the anticipated developments in national and state-level mattress law, the state of California, a bellwether for flammability law, will be announcing a proposal for a bedclothing statute by January 2003. Such developments as this make information-gathering at this point crucial.

You have questions? This is the place to get them answered. For full information on the Sleep Products Safety Council Fall Seminar, call the International Sleep Products Association at (703) 683-8371, FAX them at (703) 683-4503 or log onto their web site at www.sleepproducts.org.

Where Can You Get Information on Flammability Laws?

I sometimes get calls from manufacturers asking for information on testing and documentation requirements of state and federal flammability laws. These things are easy to obtain. The responsible agencies are more than happy to help you; just realize that conducting product recalls and levying fines are much more trouble for them than simply helping you understand the law in the first place.

An excellent example of this is the California Bureau of Home Furnishings, which not only supplies law information, but often has handy reference sheets that offer easy-to-understand tips on achieving compliance with your product. Their staff is superbly helpful, and are deeply knowledgeable on both state and federal law.

Additionally, the Web sites for some of these organizations can give you the actual document you are looking for. The CPSC web site, for instance, has a search function. When you type in the word “mattress,” the first several links in the list it delivers are to printable copies of the actual law and testing manuals (be sure to get both).

There are also non-government organizations that can help you, too. For instance, the Sleep Products Safety Council Fall Seminar (see above) will be an excellent place for information-gathering.

Try these contacts:

The Sleep Products Safety Council,
510 Wythe St., Alexandria, VA 22314
Phone (703) 683-8371
WEB site: www.sleepproducts.org

U.S. Consumer Products Safety Commission,
c/o Marilyn Borsari, Flammability Compliance Officer,
4330 East West Hwy, Bethesda, MD 20814
Phone (301) 504-0608 ext. 1370
WEB site: www.cpsc.gov

The California Bureau of Home Furnishings and Thermal Insulation,
3485 Orangegrove Ave.
North Highlands, CA 95660-5528
Phone (916) 574-2041
WEB site: www.dca.ca.gov/bhfti

Also, if you are manufacturing in Canada or exporting to Canada, you’ll want to get Canadian law information from:

Health Canada
Product Safety Programme
123 Slater Street
Ottawa, Ontario
Canada K1A 0K9
Phone (613) 957-2991
WEB site: www.hc-sc.gc.ca/hecs-sesc

Remember, the flammability environment is changing, and it pays to keep pace with the current situation—which makes the changes, when they come, less of a transition, and easier to master.

FL