Prohibits the use of chemical flame retardants on residential upholstered furniture

Summary of provisions

This bill would:

Prohibit the sale of residential upholstered furniture containing intentionally-added chemical flame retardants beginning July 1, 2016;

Require manufacturers to certify, beginning December 1, 2018, that residential upholstered furniture offered for sale in New York meets the requirements of the "open flame flammability standard;

Require the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), in consultation with the State Office of Fire Prevention and Control, to develop an open flame flammability standard that prevents flashover for at least 15 minutes and require such standard to be reviewed for effectiveness periodically; and,

Permit DEC to authorize an exemption to the prohibition on the use of chemical flame retardants upon a determination that the proposed chemical flame retardant does not pose a risk to human health or the environment. In addition, such chemical would be required to undergo a comprehensive health impact assessment conducted by the Department of Health.

Justification

Recent studies have shown that approximately 94 percent of couches manufactured after 2005 contain chemical flame retardants - in amounts capable of being measured in pounds. The flame retardant chemicals were added in response to a 1975 California flammability standard, TB 117, which was developed in response to concerns about the large number of cigarette fires. An editorial in Newsday described the process as follows: "So, the (cigarette) industry solution to these unfortunate deaths was to add flame retardant chemicals to furniture. The result: a vast increase in sales of flame-retardant chemicals, even though they're ineffective". The Chicago Tribune quoted the author of one study as saying: "The fire just laughs at it." The lion's share of furniture sold in the United States meets the California standard due to California's large market share.

Scientific studies have also demonstrated that meeting the requirements of TB 117 did not accurately reflect real-world fire behavior and that the addition of chemical flame retardants offered very little additional effectiveness. A study conducted by the United States Department of Commerce National Bureau of Standards found that there were no significant differences in fire resistance between treated and untreated foams.

The chemical flame retardants migrate out of furniture and into household dust. Because of their tendency to put items in their mouth, toddlers typically have three times the level of flame retardants as their parents. This exposure is on top of what babies are born with. An article in the Chicago Tribune stated "A typical American baby is born with the highest recorded concentrations of flame retardants among infants in the world." Many flame retardants, most notably halogenated chemical retardants, have been associated with adverse health impacts. For example, the Consumer Product Safety Commission identified the flame retardant Tris as a threat to human health, and California has identified Tris as a suspected human carcinogen. In addition, when combusted, chemical flame retardants can also form harmful by-products with the potential to affect the health of firefighters adversely. A recent study in San Francisco found that firefighters had two to three times the rate of flame retardants in their blood stream than average and found that the 110 female firefighters in the study experienced a risk of breast cancer that was nearly six times higher than the general population.

In addition, there is precedent for banning dangerous flame retardants. New York State has previously banned the use of the brominated flame retardant PentaBDE, and banned the use of Tris (TCEP) in children's products. This bill, which was developed after Assembly hearings, would prohibit the use of chemical flame retardants in residential upholstered furniture in order to decrease adverse health impacts and to ensure that chemical fire retardant-laden furniture developed for the prior California standard does not continue to be sold in New York once California revises their standard. (California has recently proposed revisions to TB 117 to reflect more accurate fire conditions and the development of the Fire Safe Cigarette Act, which has contributed to decreased cigarette-related fires.) In addition, this bill would also require residential upholstered furniture manufacturers to comply with an open flame standard beginning in 2018, reflective of a similar standard for residential mattresses adopted by the Consumer Product Safety Commission. Although the advent of fire safe cigarettes has led to a decrease in fire deaths, open flame fires continue to remain deadly. Statistics indicate that approximately 25 percent of fire deaths involve upholstered furniture, with approximately 50 percent caused by open flames such as candles and 50 percent from smoldering such as cigarettes. In order to encourage innovative, chemical-free responses, the method by which manufacturers could comply with the standard would not be specified; however, a requirement of providing at least 15 minutes before the furniture reaches ignition temperature and fire spreads rapidly would be included in order to ensure that people have sufficient time to escape safely. This time frame would also provide additional time for emergency responders to arrive.

Prior legislative history

A.6557 of 2013-2014 (Sweeney): Passed Assembly

Fiscal implications

None.

Effective date

This act shall take effect immediately; provided however, that section 37-0905 shall take effect June 1, 2018, and the Department of Environmental Conservation may adopt regulations necessary to implement the act prior to the effective date.