We are concerned that despite good intentions, there may not be a meaningful drop in the use of chemical flame retardants under this draft legislation:

 

(a) Under the new regulations the finished furniture article is fire tested. The manufacturer can innovate and design to achieve fire safety, which we support. However the regulations then propose that the foam be separately tested. This gives no real life additional fire safety benefit, yet doing so involves a quantity of unnecessary flame retardant chemicals and undermines the very essence of designing a product that resists ignition.

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(b) Studies have shown that chemical flame retardants used in furniture exacerbate smoke and fire toxicity. The Fire Brigade Union supports increasing evidence that chemical flame retardants provide negligible delay to fire ignition, worsen fire conditions, and therefore will increase dangers to firefighter safety and welfare. We do not believe that the benefit of flame retardant chemicals can be examined without also looking at their proven harm. 

 

(c) despite much of Europe and the whole USA using a smoulder test, and the UK Environmental Audit Committee having recommended a smoulder test, these regulations contain an open flame test. Only with the smallest flame size will we see the potential to design out chemical flame retardants and then only for the companies with research and development departments large enough to dedicate time and money to these fire safe - chemical free design solutions. With the open flame test in the current law almost no UK sofas can be manufactured free of chemical flame retardants. 

 

(d) The number of fire deaths in the UK is not out of kilter with the number of fire deaths in neighbouring countries - who do not have a high use of flame retardants. We therefore do not see any evidence that the flame retardant chemical usage offers any discernable benefit.

 

(e) According to these regulations, manufacturers are required to consider alternatives to chemical flame retardants “if practicable” - we are concerned that this is not a robust obligation. There is every chance that the majority of manufacturers will continue business as usual - flame retardants in the foam and in the top fabric.

 

(f) We are aware that chemicals migrate out of foam and furniture, so is it only when furniture is new that these flame retardant chemicals offer any benefit and in weighting benefit versus harm has this migration been taken into account? (see the FIRA website which says the flame retardant chemicals survive 3-6 washes).

 

(g) is the flame retardant treatment of sofas safe for children when the Whaley Report refers to the sofa as a “reservoir of chemical flame retardants”

We fully support the exclusion of children’s products from the regulations. Children lack the enzymes needed to break down and remove toxic chemicals from their system. They mouth items, they spend more time close to the floor where the chemicals collect in dust, their metabolic pathways are too immature to metabolise the chemicals and they ingest more dust, breathe more air and consume more food relative to their body size when compared with an adult. 

 

Chemical flame retardants have been linked to impaired neurological development in children, reduced IQ and behavioural problems. With this information we question whether the benefit of flame retardant chemicals is worthwhile in any situation, for any piece of furniture.

 

The US government noted that the harm from FR chemicals clearly outweighed any debatable benefit before changing their fire regulations - the UK should do the same.

The reupholstery industry offers a meaningful contribution to the circular economy in repairing, refreshing, renewing and recycling furniture and in designing and building one off quality long lasting bespoke pieces, yet the regulations as drafted disproportionately harm the industry.

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For upholsterers creating one off entirely bespoke designs and having these built on a one off basis by a carpenter is a meaningful part of their business. This is also a skillset as a country that we should want to preserve as these products tend to be well built and built to last. However this part of our business will be rendered impossible if the entire item needs to be burnt. Truly one off bespoke furniture needs to be treated differently by these regulations. 

 

Where an upholsterer receives a client’s sofa, needs to strip out degraded fillings and replace these fillings, each individual filling material and fabric would need fire testing to be compliant with these draft regulations. That could see inherently flame resistant materials such as horsehair and wool being chemically treated just to pass this test. These materials have been used for centuries, tend to singe not burn and do not present a material fire risk. Furthermore, when upholstered using traditional methods filling materials are heavily compressed, thereby increasing their density and fire resistance. As every upholsterer compresses to a unique density this would in practice be very difficult to test. 

 

Where an upholsterer receives a client’s sofa and due to a slight degradation in fillings the upholsterer chooses that the most cost effective way forward is to add a small level of new filling materials - in this case the upholsterer might have to turn the business away unless the chair was provided with an intact existing fire label. Most of the chairs and sofas we are handed for re-covering and “adding” filling material do not still have a fire label still intact. We risk losing the majority of our overall business if this were the case and perfectly refreshable furniture would have to go to incineration.

 

Where an upholsterer buys old chairs or sofas at auction or markets, intending to restore them, recover them and resell them - this would only be possible if a fire label was intact (or the chair pre-dated 1950).  This could lead to the loss of our mid century modern furniture design history and the decimation of the antiques business and vintage sellers like ebay, Etsy, Interior, 1st Dibs and the Saleroom.

 

A workable solution to the above problems would be for the upholsterer to either apply a fire safe 100% natural interliner immediately under the fabric top cover, or for the fabric top cover to be certified as smoulder resistant. The top fabric supplier should be responsible for certification of the smoulder resistance status. They should publish whether this had been achieved with or without chemical flame retardants and clearly label chemicals used.  The top fabric supplier should be accountable for providing the upholsterer with the relevant fire label for them to attach.  

We fully support the introduction of robust labelling requirements and we would like to see:

1. The chemicals listed for each individual filling material

2. The chemicals being clearly identified with their common chemical acronym

3. A separate label for the reupholstery industry identifying either that an interliner has been used; or that the top fabric was smoulder resistant. Fabric can be smoulder resistant without the use of chemical flame retardants. If the client chooses a fabric that has been chemically treated then the chemicals should be clearly identified. Old fire labels (if any) would also be reaffixed to the furniture.

4. The responsibility for providing a label for a chemically treated top fabric should rest with the manufacturing fabric house.

 

Historically we have, despite best efforts, had little success in obtaining information from suppliers or fabric houses on the chemicals used or the safety data sheets for products. We do not have the buying power of the manufacturers to insist upon this information and as such we would like to see the obligation fall on the fabric companies. The vast majority of upholsterers are micro-businesses often sole traders. We largely purchase filling materials from a small cohort of upholstery suppliers and we have little contact with manufacturers. Our buying power is small and historically we have struggled to acquire details on filling material ingredients and chemical treatment. 

 

We believe the labelling per component part is necessary for end of life recycling and moving to a circular economy. It is also important for the occupational health of an upholsterer.