UL Offers Flammability Testing For California’s New Mattress Standard

Furniture World Magazine

Underwriters Laboratories (UL) now provides testing to California’s new Open-Flame Mattress Standard, TB 603. TB 603 was developed by the California Bureau of Home Furnishings and Thermal Insulation to decrease the number of fire deaths in the home. It requires mattresses sold in the state to meet specific flammability requirements. The Standard becomes law in January 2004, giving mattress manufacturers until January 2005 to comply before the law will be enforced. UL is one of only six testing laboratories in the country capable of conducting fire testing for the TB 603 standard. “UL has one of the most comprehensive fire protection testing capabilities in the world,” said Tom Chapin, UL’s Strategic Business Unit general manager for Fire. “With 150 fire testing standards and 750 different product test categories, UL is confident that its expert fire testing capabilities will assist manufacturers in meeting the flammability requirements of TB 603 before the January 2005 deadline and provide a safer end-product to consumers.” According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, residential mattress fires represent one of the greatest causes of fire deaths in homes in the United States. Small open-flame ignition sources, many of which involve children playing with matches and cigarette lighters, cause about one-fifth of those fires. Data also indicates that annual fire losses in the United States associated with mattress and bedding products total 510 deaths, 2,290 injuries and $280.4 million dollars in property damage. Prior to the establishment of TB 603, bedding flammability laws in the United States only addressed the smolder resistance of mattresses, futons and mattress pads, but not their open-flame resistance. TB 603 applies to all mattresses and box springs, including futons, hybrid flotation and airbed ensembles, sofa sleepers, cribs, bunk beds, roll-a-way and hide-a-beds. For more technical information on fire testing and certification, contact UL’s Bob Backstrom at (847) 664-2250 or Robert.G.Backstrom@us.ul.com Underwriters Laboratories Inc. (UL) is an independent, not-for-profit product safety certification organization that has been testing products and writing Standards for Safety for more than 100 years. UL tests more than 18,000 types of products annually, and more than 17 billion UL Marks appear on products each year. Worldwide, UL's family of companies and its network of service providers include 55 laboratories, and testing and certification facilities.