April 27, 2000
Did you know that thousands of house fires each year are caused by ignited upholstery on furniture?
In fact right now there is no regulatory standard for making furniture fire retardent here in the U.S.
But that may soon change.
News Specialist Jill Atwood has details.
Firefighters will tell you that if the flames don't kill you, the smoke will. That's because most of the time that smoke is toxic, coming from burning upholstery on furniture.
A cigarette catches a chair on fire in a Salt Lake City home. It's one of six fires in the last year originating from a piece of upholstered furniture.
Capt. Devin Villa/S.L.C. Fire Dept.: ONCE THE OPEN FLAMES START, IT MOVES VERY FAST. WE HAVE EVIDENCE OF ROOMS BEING ENGULFED IN FOUR TO FIVE MINUTES.
And evidence of that is seen as an upholstered chair quickly goes up in flames.
However, there are a number of flame-retardent chemicals out there that may help prevent such fires. But until today, some members of congress were afraid those chemicals might be harmful to humans.
Carol Maczka PHD./National Research Council: EVEN UNDER THE THE WORST CASE EXPOSURE ASSUMPTIONS THESE CHEMICALS POSE MINIMAL RISK TO HUMANS.
Testing still isn't complete, but the Consumer Product Safety Commission says the newest study is encouraging and puts it a step closer to instituting a flammabilty standard to be met by furniture makers.
