Furniture

HFA URGES CPSC TO EXPEDITE RULEMAKING PROCESS

The Home Furnishings Association (HFA) urges the Consumer Products Safety Commission (CPSC) to pursue expedited rulemaking to reap rigorous protection widespread for garbage garage furniture balance. Your company has documented the risks associated with accidental tip-overs of bedroom dressers, chests of drawers, and similar units,” HFA CEO Sharron Bradley wrote in a letter to CPSC Acting Chairwoman Ann Marie Buerkle today. “The time has come to take decisive movement.

HFA URGES CPSC TO EXPEDITE RULEMAKING PROCESS 1

As the primary alternate affiliation for fixtures shops inside the United States, HFA has supported CPSC’s “Anchor It!” marketing campaign because it was released, “and we pledge to keep to make our contributors aware of them want to tell clients that they ought to anchor garb garage fixtures to at ease surfaces to prevent tip-overs,” Bradley wrote. “Too many consumers still depart fixtures stores or order furnishings on-line for domestic delivery, with little know-how of the potential hazards or the urgency of placing clothing storage gadgets properly of their children’s bedrooms.

At the same time,” Bradley persisted, “we recognize the importance of making sure that every piece of furniture offered in our participants’ shops is designed and built for safety and balance. We heeded your employer’s letter of February 27, 2019, advising outlets now not to sell any apparel garage devices that don’t meet the ASTM protection widespread. We communicated to our participants the gravity of this warning. Our members take this responsibility severely. Some include fixture stability into their own protection applications, and some conduct their very own stability testing underneath the auspices of UL’s balance verification application.

Yet, we ought to additionally point to the difficulties a number of our members stumble upon as they are looking for to serve their customers’ preference to buy domestic fixtures merchandise at low-priced prices,” Bradley wrote. “It isn’t continually smooth to realize with the truth whether a chest or wardrobe meets the ASTM well known. As lengthy as compliance is voluntary, many of the product to be had from manufacturers or different assets can be much less sturdy than it has to be. Lacking the knowledge to perform their very own testing, a number of our members may be unaware that a product they provide on the market might not skip a balance check below the ASTM trendy. While all retailers should train customers to anchor these devices in the region at domestic, chests and dressers ought to be stable and secured with right restraining devices.”

The Home Furnishings Association holds a seat on ASTM’s Furniture Safety subcommittee and voted in April to approve a revision to consist of additional apparel garage units in the scope of the voluntary protection well-known. HFA voted towards other proposed revisions to grow the weight used in balance trying out because protocols for mandatory testing have to be decided with the aid of CPSC’s group of workers of technical professionals running with toddler-safety advocates and engineering specialists inside the domestic furniture enterprise. The fashionable should be sound, powerful, and feasible.

The suitable standard is likewise beneath debate in Congress, but the right body entrusted with the aid of regulation to address essential purchaser safety subjects is the CPSC, Bradley wrote. “That is why we are relying on the Commission to transport beyond the ASTM’s voluntary preferred and the congressional debates. … Our contributors need to recognize that each clothing storage unit they sell is established to be as secure as it may almost be made.

Judith Barnes

I am a freelance writer and blogger based in New York City. I love to write about home design, landscaping, architecture, gardens, real estate, and exterior design. I also run a blog called Mypropertal, where I share tips about home and garden improvement projects. In addition to writing, I work part-time as a social media manager for a real estate company in NYC.

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