WASHINGTON -- A study released last week on the health risks of flame-retardant chemicals could lead to a federal requirement that upholstered furniture be strong enough to resist catching on fire from lighters, matches and candles.
A panel of scientists for the National Research Council said in the study that eight of 16 flame-retardant chemicals can be used on furniture with "little or no health risk" to people who sit on the furniture.Among the other eight chemicals, at least two pose a cancer risk inhaled, but there is little information on the risk of exposure from contact with the skin or ingestion, the panel said.
New furniture already must be resistant to being set ablaze from a lighted cigarette. But about 100 deaths a year, mostly children, continue to be attributed to fires from burning furniture. Another 420 people are injured on average and property losses amount to $40 million a year, according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission.
The federal agency estimates that a flame-resistant standard could cost consumers $460 million to $720 million a year in higher furniture prices.
The National Association of State Fire Marshals petitioned the CPSC in 1993 to adopt flammability standards for residential furniture and the agency began considering a rule in 1997.
But in 1998, Rep. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., whose district is a center for upholstered furniture manufacturing, persuaded Congress to order the toxicity study and block the CPSC from further consideration of the regulation until it was completed.
Wicker said that despite the study results, he will continue to oppose any new regulations.
But a spokesman for the safety commission, Ken Giles, said the study "does not deter us from a flammability standard."