FR regulations open up doors for nonwovens: role in home furnishings expected to climb as national standards become a reality

Nonwovens Industry, Nov, 2004 by Karen Bitz

The nonwovens industry is preparing for pending California antiflammability legislation that will likely pave the way for a national standard in mattress construction and ultimately change the way upholstered furniture, in general, is manufactured in the U.S. California Technical Bulletin 603, set to go into effect January 1, 2005, requires that all mattresses, mattress/box spring sets and futons provide protection against an open flame causing the product to burn intensely.

The legislation marks the nation's first such standard but as this article went to press, the bedding and furniture industry was eagerly awaiting comments from the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) that could extend the California guidelines, or similar ones, to the entire U.S. market.

Clearly designed to benefit the consumer, this legislation aims to reduce the number of lives lost to fire. According to statistics gathered by the CPSC, there were more than 20,000 residential fires leading to 470 civilian deaths and 2830 civilian injuries between 1995-1999. With a decent percentage of these fires and deaths being caused by open flames, often candles or lighters, the consensus is that fire, death and loss of property would be greatly reduced by these standards. Already, efforts are underway to extend this legislation to include bedclothes and ultimately other types of upholstered furniture including chairs and sofas.

For the nonwovens industry, the emergence of such legislation is welcome news, and not only for its efforts in preserving human life. The flexibility of nonwoven materials allows them to take on flame resistant properties, often more easily than competing materials in the home furnishing segment. The potential windfall that this legislation could have on nonwovens producers, in fact, is so great that many companies have been leveraging significant resources there in recent years.

"The new regulations are a great fit for nonwovens," said James Frasch, vice president of technical products for Freudenberg North America. "The reason for this is that the performance of the FR material has to be custom designed for each application (i.e., different types of bed designs) and this can more easily be accomplished with staple fiber nonwovens using different fiber blends and nonwoven structures for the various technical challenges."

A Brewing Issue

In the past decades, CPSC has faced several challenges, both practical and political, in developing antiflammability standards in upholstered furniture. Interest in these standards first emerged in the early 1970s after evidence suggested that a large number of household fires were started after unattended cigarettes ignited furniture. At that time, CPSC even issued a draft standard, but the action was halted when a coalition of furniture manufacturers developed a voluntary standard to address the issue. Then, in 1993, the National Association of State Fire Marshals petitioned CPSC to develop national standards for upholstered furniture and specifically requested standards that addressed fires caused bys smoldering cigarettes and small open flames.

In 1996, CPSC issued a small open flame draft standard seeking to require upholstered furniture fabrics to be self extinguishing. This draft was criticized by industry stakeholders because the requirements would force manufacturers to back-coat fabrics with FR chemicals and data on the long-term health effects on consumers. These concerns led Congress to suspend CPSC work on national standards until the National Academy of Sciences could evaluate environmental and health impacts of several FR chemicals. NAS findings ultimately supported CPSC, but the review stalled efforts until mid 2000.

Throughout these efforts, INDA, Association of the Nonwoven Fabrics Industry, Cary, NC, urged the commission to consider the use of nonwovens as an alternative to self-extinguishing fabrics. Nonwovens can significantly impede the spread of a fire while limiting exposure to FR chemicals. Meanwhile, many furniture manufacturers understood the importance of antiflammability efforts but did not believe there was the science to achieve these needs, according to Robert McKenna, CEO of FR fiber producer Basofil. "It was not until impending regulations later helped us take a step forward with this technology that we were able to achieve these regulations while still thinking of the needs of the consumer," he said.

As CPSC faced these challenges, the California State Legislature, in 2001, passed a law requiring that its Bureau of Home Furnishings and Thermal Insulation develop mattress flammability standards within two years, and in 2002 the state regulatory agency began work on a state-level mattress standard and began updating California's flammability standard for residential upholstered furniture.

Facing the possibility that other states might follow California's lead and develop their own flammability standards, members of the furnishing market began thinking that national standards would be far better than having to comply with 50 different state-level requirements. With this in mind, a coalition of furniture and fabric interests approached CPSC in early 2003 supporting national flammability standards as long as they applied to ignitions caused by cigarettes or small open flames and could be met through the use of FR barrier materials. Around this same time, federal legislators introduced the American Home Fire Safety Act. This legislation, which has not yet been adopted, once would have focused CPSC to adopt California state standards but has since been amended to allow the commission to exercise its own judgment in adopting a national standard.