BILL NUMBER: AB 2197	INTRODUCED
	BILL TEXT


INTRODUCED BY   Assembly Member Mitchell
   (Principal coauthor: Senator Leno)
   (Coauthors: Assembly Members Bonilla and Butler)

                        FEBRUARY 23, 2012

   An act to amend, repeal, and add Section 19161 of the Business and
Professions Code, relating to furniture.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   AB 2197, as introduced, Mitchell. Seating furniture: flammability.

   Existing law, the Home Furnishings and Thermal Insulation Act,
requires all seating furniture sold or offered for sale, as
specified, to be fire retardant and labeled.
   The Bureau of Electronic and Appliance Repair, Home Furnishings,
and Thermal Insulation has adopted, by regulation, a flame retardance
test of the filling materials of residential upholstered furniture.
   This bill, effective September 1, 2013, would revise these
provisions to instead require all seating furniture sold or offered
for sale to meet a smolder flammability test rather than an open
flame-test. The bill would make legislative findings and declarations
in that regard.
   Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: no.


THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

  SECTION 1.  The Legislature finds and declares all of the
following:
   (a) The great majority of injuries and deaths related to ignition
of upholstered furniture in homes occur as a result of smolder
ignition.
   (b) The rate of injury and deaths in the United States attributed
to open flame ignition of household furniture is very low.
   (c) Flammability standards based on whether furniture can
withstand open flame ignition do not protect against the majority of
injuries due to ignition of upholstered furniture in homes.
   (d) Recent studies establish that the use of filling that meets
the open flame test in the Bureau of Electronic and Appliance Repair,
Home Furnishings, and Thermal Insulation's Technical Bulletin 117 of
March 2000 (TB 117) does not reduce the severity of a fire involving
upholstered furniture. In those studies, the filling treated to make
it compliant with TB 117 ignited in the same amount of time as the
nontreated filling covered by the same fabric. TB 117-compliant
filling also did not affect flame spread.
   (e) The United States Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC)
has extensively studied the optimal way to reduce injury and death
due to ignition of household furniture. It has concluded that it is
most critical for flammability standards for upholstered furniture to
reduce the risk of residential fires resulting from smoldering
ignitions of upholstered furniture because this type of fire accounts
for a substantial majority of the addressable deaths, injuries, and
property losses due to fire.
   (f) Not only is the focus on smolder ignition in the CPSC standard
the optimal means for reducing the most common cause of injuries due
to ignition of upholstered furniture, it also enables furniture
manufacturers to ensure fire safety without adding chemical flame
retardants to furniture filling.
   (g) The chemicals currently used to comply with TB 117 are not
sealed in consumer products, but instead migrate from the product to
the larger environment. Flame retardant chemicals are found in
household dust and indoor air, and wastewater transports these
chemicals into the outdoor environment where they have been detected
in California's surface waters, sediments and wildlife. Flame
retardant chemicals used to meet TB 117 have been found in the body
fluids of nearly all Californians tested. California children have
some of the highest levels in the world of flame retardant chemicals
in their bodies.
   (h) Common chemical flame retardants present serious health risks
to humans and wildlife. In general, human studies have shown
associations between increased flame retardant body levels and
reduced IQ in children, reduced fertility, endocrine and thyroid
disruption, changes in male hormone levels, adverse birth outcomes,
and impaired development. The high levels of exposure of children to
these chemicals is of particular concern because the exposure occurs
when their rapidly developing brains and reproductive organs are most
vulnerable. One of the chemical flame retardants commonly used to
bring upholstered furniture into compliance with TB 117 has been
listed as a carcinogen in California under Proposition 65 by the
California Carcinogen Identification Committee.
   (i) The Legislature is persuaded by the reasoning of the CPSC's
proposed smolder flammability standard for seating furniture (73 Fed.
Reg. 11702, as published in the Federal Register on March 4, 2008).
California can better protect the public from the dangers of ignition
of household furniture and the risks posed by chemical flame
retardants by adopting a comprehensive smolder ignition standard for
upholstered furniture to replace the current open flame standard.
   (j) For these reasons, the Legislature is amending Section 19161
of the Business and Professions Code with the intent that the Bureau
of Electronic and Appliance Repair, Home Furnishings, and Thermal
Insulation shall revise TB 117 and model the revised standard on the
draft smolder flammability standard published by CPSC.
  SEC. 2.  Section 19161 of the Business and Professions Code is
amended to read:
   19161.  (a) All mattresses and mattress sets manufactured for sale
in this state shall be fire retardant. "Fire retardant," as used in
this section, means a product that meets the standards for resistance
to open-flame test adopted by the United States Consumer Product
Safety Commission and set forth in Section 1633 and following of
Title 16 of the Code of Federal Regulations. The bureau may adopt
regulations it deems necessary to implement those standards.
   (b) All other bedding products that the bureau determines
contribute to mattress bedding fires shall comply with regulations
adopted by the bureau specifying that those products be resistant to
open-flame ignition.
   (c) All seating furniture sold or offered for sale by an importer,
manufacturer, or wholesaler for use in this state, including any
seating furniture sold to or offered for sale for use in a hotel,
motel, or other place of public accommodation in this state, and
reupholstered furniture to which filling materials are added, shall
be fire retardant and shall be labeled in a manner specified by the
bureau. This does not include furniture used exclusively for the
purpose of physical fitness and exercise.
   (d) Regulations adopted by the bureau for other bedding products
shall not apply to any hotel, motel, bed and breakfast, inn, or
similar transient lodging establishment that has an automatic fire
extinguishing system that conforms to the specifications established
in Section 904.1 of Title 24 of the California Code of Regulations.

   (e) This section shall become operative on July 1, 2007. 

   (e) This section shall become inoperative on September 1, 2013,
and, as of January 1, 2014, is repealed, unless a later enacted
statute, that becomes operative on or before January 1, 2014, deletes
or extends the dates on which it becomes inoperative and is
repealed. 
  SEC. 3.  Section 19161 is added to the Business and Professions
Code, to read:
   19161.  (a) All mattresses and mattress sets manufactured for sale
in this state shall be fire retardant. "Fire retardant," as used in
this section, means a product that meets the standards for resistance
to open-flame test adopted by the United States Consumer Product
Safety Commission and set forth in Section 1633 and following of
Title 16 of the Code of Federal Regulations. The bureau may adopt
regulations it deems necessary to implement those standards.
   (b) All other bedding products that the bureau determines
contribute to mattress bedding fires shall comply with regulations
adopted by the bureau specifying that those products be resistant to
open-flame ignition.
   (c) All seating furniture sold or offered for sale by an importer,
manufacturer, or wholesaler for use in this state, including any
seating furniture sold to or offered for sale for use in a hotel,
motel, or other place of public accommodation in this state, and
reupholstered furniture to which filling materials are added, shall
meet a smolder flammability test. Seating furniture shall be labeled
in a manner specified by the bureau. This does not include furniture
used exclusively for the purpose of physical fitness and exercise.
The smolder flammability test shall replace the open flame test in
the bureau's Technical Bulletin 117 (as adopted in March 2000) as the
flammability standard for seating furniture subject to this
subdivision.
   (d) Regulations adopted by the bureau for other bedding products
shall not apply to any hotel, motel, bed and breakfast, inn, or
similar transient lodging establishment that has an automatic fire
extinguishing system that conforms to the specifications established
in Section 904.1 of Title 24 of the California Code of Regulations.
   (e) This section shall become operative on September 1, 2013.