pinfa welcomes the UK’s commitment to furniture fire safety, supports that FRs be only used where appropriate and underlines that recognised safe PIN FRs are available. The UK currently has the world’s most demanding fire safety regulations for domestic furniture, requiring resistance of materials to both a small flame and a smouldering heat source (cigarette) as well as fire resistance of padding foams. Presenting the proposed regulation revision, the UK Government states that these regulations have reduced deaths by fire and are a recognised “gold standard” for fire safety. The proposed revision (see pinfa Newsletter n°152) will facilitate flexible design and testing, and also instigates a Flame Retardant Technology Hierarchy, requiring companies to demonstrate that other solutions for fire safety are not practical if flame retardants are used (design changes, inherently non-flammable materials). pinfa’s input
- welcomes the continuing UK commitment to high fire safety requirements for domestic upholstered furniture,
- welcomes the principle of small flame + cigarette + foam fire resistance requirements maintained,
- questions the definitions of “flame retardants” and “inherently flame-retardant material” in the proposed Hierarchy: e.g. reactive or polymeric FRs, synergists, smoke suppressants,
- underlines the need to assess chemical risk (taking into account exposure), not only “hazard”.
pinfa underlines that recognised safe PIN flame retardants are available for furniture fire safety, listing ten PIN FRs which have no environmental or health classification and which are TCO or Oekotex accepted:
- Bisphenol A diphosphate
- Tetrakis (2,6-dimethylphenyl)-m-phenylene biphosphate
- Siloxanes and silicones, di-Me, di-Ph, polymers with Ph silsesquioxanes
- Phenoxyphosphazene / hexaphenoxycyclotriphosphazene (HPCP)
- Polyphosphonates
- Phosphonic acid, (3([hydroxymethlyl]amino)-3-oxopropyl-dimethyl ester
- Reaction mass of 3-[(diphenoxyphosphoryl)oxy]phenyl triphenyl 1,3-phenylene bis(phosphate) and tetraphenyl 1,3-phenylene bis(phos-phate)
- Proprietary organosphorus-based flame retardants
- Ammonium polyphosphate
- Melamine polyphosphate
- N-alkoxy hindered amine
UK Government public consultation “Smarter Regulation: Fire safety of domestic upholstered furniture”, closed 24th October 2023 https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/smarter-regulation-fire-safety-of-domestic-upholstered-furniture
pinfa input to the UK consultation: https://www.pinfa.eu/flame-retardants/position-papers/