National Cotton Batting LA Institute launches Fire Safety Certification Program

MEMPHIS, TN — Members of the National Cotton Batting Institute (NCBI) will soon be certified as producers of the safest cotton-based batting on the market. NCBI has reached an agreement with Underwriters Laboratories Inc. (UL), Northbrook, Ill., to begin random testing and inspection of each member’s cotton batting in early 1999. Compliance with UL’s certification process is mandatory for membership in NCBI. This program will allow the customer and the marketplace to be able to clearly differentiate between certified Flame Retardant (FR) cotton batting and the untreated materials available in some areas. FR-treated cotton batting has helped cut home fire deaths by 54%.

UL, the largest safety testing and conformity assessment organization in North America, is developing the certification program for cotton batting, the filling material used in futon mattresses, futons and furniture. With development of the new program, UL becomes the first third-party certifier of cotton batting in the country to apply Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), American Society of Testing Materials (ASTM), Upholstered Furniture Action Council (UFAC) and California Technical Bulletin 117 standards to the natural fiber product.

According to Randy Laymon, engineering group leader at UL, “the third party certification offered by UL should fulfill a basic need of the futon mattress and cotton batting industries. The fire retardancy issue is a growing concern of the American consumer. Through the support documentation related to UL certification, futon mattress manufacturers will now have the option to market their use of FR cotton batting.” With 104 years of fire safety experience, UL has some of the most comprehensive fire protection testing capabilities in North America. UL’s fire safety experts use specialized test equipment and test methods to help manufacturers develop materials, products and systems that help reduce fire risks to life and property.

NCBI worked with UFAC in the early 1990s in developing a Quality Assurance Program for the cotton batting industry. This voluntary program is an effort to promote proper methods of applying naturally-found boric acid to smolder-resistant and fire-retardant cotton batting in the manufacturing process. NCBI also is working with various federal regulatory agencies such as the CPSC, Environmental Protection Agency and Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

“One of our primary objectives,” explained Kenny Oliver, president of Jones Fiber Products Inc., and chairman of the NCBI Quality Assurance Task Force, “is to prove that the most comfortable filling material available is also the safest. By passing UL’s extraordinarily high certification standards, there will be no question that cotton batting should be the preferred mattress filler. It’s natural, it’s beautiful and now it will be UL-certified.”

Cotton batting is the all-natural choice in home furnishings and many other industrial applications important to today’s lifestyles. After the longest fibers of the cotton plant have been made into apparel and home furnishings fabric, textile mill by-products and cotton linters (fibers removed from the cottonseed) are processed into cotton batting. End-product manufacturers such as furniture makers use cotton batting to provide safe, predictable body to high-quality home furnishings.

Organized in 1954, the National Cotton Batting Institute is the sole representative for the fiber batting industry and is dedicated to solving its problems and promoting its products. NCBI membership is comprised of manufacturers, dealers in linters and textile by-products and associated firms having a vested interest in the economic well being of the batting industry.

To provide more information on its new certification program, NCBI has developed a Quality Assurance Program section on its web site at www.natbat.com. For more information contact Tommy Horton at the National Cotton Batting Institute via e-mail at thorton@natbat.com today.

The plan was put into motion four years ago and today consumers have a much better handle on just what futon furniture is. “Each month we are seeing our hit count go up another million, and the future holds even more promise,” said Joe Tatulli, the Chairman of the Futon Marketing Council, the marketing arm of the Futon Association.

“Each year’s program includes several phases that focus on presenting consumer media editors with a focused and well planned collection of news, information, photography, and mat articles that help them intelligently cover futon furniture for the home,” Tatulli said.

“This past year, among other things, we developed two consumer brochures that were used as news hooks, and were also made available to Association retail members to use in their futon stores. Our Home is What You Make It and Be My Guest consumer brochures demonstrated the versatility of futon furniture when you are outfitting a new home, and when you are expecting house guests,” he said.

FL