The chief of the California state agency responsible for the rule that made toxic flame retardant chemicals common in American furniture told lawmakers here Tuesday that she is committed to scrapping that rule and replacing it with fire-safety tests that can be met without the use of toxic chemicals.
Tonya Blood, chief of the California agency that regulates furniture, said the new test will require furniture to resist a smoldering cigarette. The existing standard requires the foam in furniture cushions to withstand a candlelike flame, even though candles are a far less common cause of fires.
Federal safety officials have said that the fabric covering most furniture is sufficient to meet a smolder standard, making it unnecessary to add chemicals to the foam underneath. Representatives from the furniture industry who testified Tuesday echoed that finding and said they are eager to see the change. While the rule technically governs furniture sold only in California, many manufacturers add flame retardants to products sold nationwide to address liability concerns and to avoid making two versions of the same product.
Blood also said she will work to exempt most baby products from the state's flammability standards; manufacturers have added flame retardants to many such products that contain polyurethane foam to meet California's rule.
"This standard provides protection while reducing reliance on toxic chemicals," Blood told lawmakers in the California Assembly Committee on Environmental Safety and Toxic Materials.
In years past, a front group for the largest manufacturers of flame retardants -- the Citizens for Fire Safety Institute -- has successfully fought efforts by lawmakers to scale back use of chemicals or change the standard, which was established in 1975. But Tuesday's hearing demonstrated just how much the ground has shifted since the Tribune's "Playing With Fire" series in May exposed its deceptive tactics.
California state Sen. Mark Leno, who has repeatedly tried but failed to reduce the use of flame retardants in furniture and baby products, accused Citizens for Fire Safety of abusing the legislative process and read aloud sections of the Tribune series.
At a state Senate hearing on one of Leno's bills last year, Citizens for Fire Safety's star witness, burn surgeon Dr. David Heimbach, testified about an infant patient from Alaska who suffered fatal burns on cushioning that lacked flame retardants, but the Tribune in May showed that the baby as he described her did not exist.
"To make up a story like that is really not only unacceptable, as now revealed in this Tribune story, this industry has been dishonored, disgraced and discredited," Leno said.
Source: Yellowbrix
