You can't legislate behavior and mandate cigarette smoking cessation at home, but you can make it safer for those who insist on engaging in risky behavior.

That's the thought behind the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission's recent unanimous vote to expand proceedings to develop federal standards for upholstered furniture's flammability performance.

Furniture going up in flames accounts for more fire deaths than any other category of products under CPSC's jurisdiction and most such fires involve smoldering cigarettes.

In 1998 there were 420 deaths caused by furniture fires (down from 680 in 1994), 1080 injuries and $120 million in property damage. Other fires are caused by small open flame sources -- lighters, matches and candles. The small open flame fires were typically started by kids playing with lighters or matches.

The culprit is often the polyurethane foam, the potentially "fatal foam" found in most furniture in virtually all households.

Burning polyurethane not only spreads quickly, but burns so hot its fire can ignite objects without touching them. In the process it fills rooms with deadly hydrogen cyanide and carbon monoxide and it displaces life-sustaining oxygen.

"New fire reducing technologies and better cooperation from industry are making the development of a new national standard viable. I believe a standard for upholstered furniture will reduce home fires while remaining cost effective and flexible for manufacturers and consumers," said CPSC Chairman Hal Stratton.

Voluntary industry standards for cigarette ignition resistance and some state regulations have helped reduce the number of furniture fires from 23,700 in 1984 to 14,300 in 1994, but there are no national or state laws forcing furniture manufacturers to use only flame retardant, flame resistant or burn-proof fabrics to cover furniture.

The Upholstered Furniture Action Council in High Point, NC, a voluntary industry research association, affixes the gold UFAC tag on furniture designed to reduce fires from smoldering cigarettes.

Fire safety experts say furniture fire is so volatile, if your furniture catches on fire, do not attempt to extinguish the flames. Escape through the nearest exit and call 911. The composition of some furniture can cause it to explode into smoke and flames in seconds.

In tests conducted on fabric-covered furniture going up in flames, even a regulation fire hose off a fire truck had trouble putting out a furniture fire. That's largely because of polyurethane foam, a ubiquitous material stuffed into most furniture everywhere in your home. It is so flammable firefighters refer to it as "solid gasoline" and "fatal foam".

Fire officials say it was responsible for 100 deaths in the killer conflagration at The Station, a nightclub in Providence, RI set ablaze by indoor pyrotechnics. The night club used polyurethane as a sound proofing material and it was in the furniture.

Upholstered furniture and related industry groups recommended that the CPSC promulgate a mandatory rule addressing both cigarette and small open flame ignition. A federal mandatory standard would apply to imports as well as domestic products.

Published: October 24, 2003

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Broderick Perkins parlayed a career in old-school journalism into a contemporary digital news service that really hits home. The award-winning consumer journalist, originally from Wilmington, DE, is founder, publisher and executive editor of the bootstrap DeadlineNews Group, a Silicon Valley-based editorial content and consulting service specializing in residential real estate, consumer news and related editorial consulting services. The DeadlineNews Group includes the website, DeadlineNews.com, offering real estate editorial content and consulting services, and its back shop, the Deadline Newsroom, an open house on news that really hits home. Perkins obtained his formal journalism education from University of Delaware and a journalism boot camp, the Institute of Journalism Education at the University of California-Berkeley. He went on to 20 years of service as a daily newspaper journalist at the Wilmington, DE News Journal and San Jose, CA Mercury News. Perkins covered housing on the San Jose Mercury News reporting team which earned a General News Reporting Pulitzer Prize in 1989 for coverage of the Loma Prieta earthquake. He has also produced real estate, consumer and small business content for the Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, RealtyTimes.com, Nolo.com, Better Homes and Gardens, the National Association of Realtors, Homestore/Move and Intuit/Quicken among more than three dozen publications. In addition to managing the DeadlineNews Group, Perkins most recently served as chief editorial consultant for Nolo's Essential Guide To Buying Your First Home, Nolo, and writes real estate television scripts for RealtyTimes.com.