Orlando Office
Overchuck, De Marco, Byron & Overchuck, P.A.2709 W. Fairbanks Ave.
Winter Park, FL 32789
Tel: 407-872-6222
Fax: 407-872-6822
[ View Map ]
Additional Resources
- OSHA Occupational Safety & Health Administration
- ISBI International Society for Burn Injuries
- Children's Coalition for Fire-Safe Mattresses Raising public awareness of the toxic fire threat posed by conventional residential mattresses
- Burn Support Online
- The Phoenix Society for Burn Survivors, Inc.
- Overchuck, De Marco, Byron & Overchuck, P.A..
Co-founder of:
The American Coalition
for Safe Mattresses
Mattress and Bedding Flammability
The long awaited and much needed improvements to the existing flammability standard for mattresses and bedding have recently received another disappointing delay in regulatory action. The State of California has been halted from forging ahead of the outdated Federal Standard for the Flammability of Mattresses with its new flame-resistant standard for beds in January 2004. California's leading edge effort has been delayed due to a requirement that it seek an exemption from the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) from Federal pre-emption before moving ahead with its new standard. It would have been the toughest such standard addressing this hazardous issue in our nation today -- far exceeding the Federal Standard for the Flammability of Mattresses which has not been updated since 1973.
California's proposed standard is designed to prevent an intense mattress fire for a full 30 minutes. Tests performed on today's mattresses have shown mattresses ablaze in deadly flames and the rooms housing these mattresses filled with smoke in just three minutes. The current Federal standard only requires that a product resist ignition from a smoldering fire caused by a cigarette but does not provide protection from open flame ignited fires. Instead of seeking the required pre-emption exemption, California regulators have formally requested that CPSC adopt California's proposed open-flame standard for mattresses, bedding, and futons. California awaits CPSC's response.
This mattress meets Federal standards
Regardless of any regulatory changes, a hazardous danger continues to exist in American homes today. It is the mattress industry's discovery and use of polyurethane foam. Polyurethane foam meets the requirements of the current flammability standard which allows mattresses to pass the cigarette burn test by allowing effective displacement of the heat given off by a cigarette's glowing ember, and not any other source of fire. Polyurethane foam is made of a mixture of several hazardous chemicals. Some of those chemicals share the same combustibility rating as kerosene and gasoline. Therefore, polyurethane foam in a conventional mattress is highly combustible. When the foam ignites, an entire room can erupt in flames in minutes, producing deadly cyanide gas. Cyanide is a nerve agent that first disables, and then kills, its victim. Victims more often die from inhaling the gas and smoke from the burning foam than from the flames themselves.
Even the potential for regulatory action to occur on a state or national level within the next couple of years does not address the hazards that continue to exist in homes across America today where mattresses regulated under the antiquated Federal standard still remain. The current statistics are grim - an estimated 20,800 fires are attributed to mattresses and bedding each year.