Cotton Batting Group's Certification Program Presented to CPSC

Furniture World Magazine

The National Cotton Batting Institute (NCBI), whose members produce a product used in bedding and furniture, has taken a huge step toward improving the fire safety of their product. NCBI members voted recently to make participation in an Underwriters Laboratories Inc. (UL)-developed third-party certification program a mandatory requirement for association membership. UL is the largest safety testing and conformity assessment organization in North America, with 105 years of fire safety experience and some of the most comprehensive fire protection testing capabilities. NCBI member firms make cotton batting, which is used extensively as filling material in mattresses, futons, upholstered furniture and other products. Cotton batting primarily is comprised of textile mill by-products, other cotton by-products and linters, short fibers removed from cottonseed after the usable textile fiber has been removed. NCBI recently shared information about progress on their smoulder-resistant fire-resistant certification program with the Consumer Product Safety Commission commissioners and staff.. NCBI President Alan Vincent, president of Vincent Manufacturing Company, Little Falls, NY, NCBI Secretary Kenneth Oliver, president of Jones Fiber Products, and Fred Middleton, NCBI executive secretary, both of Memphis; joined Dr. Phillip Wakelyn, senior scientist for the National Cotton Council, Washington, DC, and Randy Laymon, UL's engineering group leader, Northbrook, EL, in meeting with the agency. "We were encouraged by CPSC's reception of our information," Vincent said. "The feedback will help us in communicating with our association members and potential members as well as our customers about this program." CPSC project manager Margaret Neily said, "We're always encouraged by industry groups like this, which take the initiative to improve the performance and reliability of products that affect the fire safety of consumers." Vincent said, "the program will allow the customer and the marketplace to purchase certified smolder-resistant and flame resistant (FR) cotton batting. Home fire deaths have been reduced 54 percent since the initiation of smolder-resistant standards, in part because of such products as FR cotton batting." Middleton noted that the certification program, which was initiated early this year, "is another step in a continuing effort to ensure that appropriately manufactured FR-cotton batting is available in the marketplace." He said, "NCBI plans to make furniture manufacturing customers aware that if they require a properly constructed smolder-resistant, flame-resistant product, they can find it from our members." The certification program requires NCBI members to submit to quarterly, unannounced UL inspections as well as cigarette ignition resistance, smolder resistance, open flame and other testing. Since early this decade, NCBI members have been participating in a voluntary quality assurance program that promoted proper methods of applying naturally found boric acid to provide smolder-resistant and flame-resistant properties to cotton batting in the manufacturing process. Under this program, UL became the first third-party certifier of cotton batting in the U.S. to CPSC, American Society of Testing Materials, Upholstered Furniture Action Council and California Technical Bulletin 117 standards to this natural-fiber product. NCBI also is working with other federal regulatory agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency and the Occupational Safety and Health, Administration to demonstrate that the most] comfortable filling material available also is the safest.