On 2 August 2023, the Office for Product Safety and Standards launched a new consultation on proposed changes (such as they are) for the Furniture and Furnishings (Fire) (Safety) Regulations 1988. To run alongside it, we are launching:
THE CAMPAIGN FOR SAFE FURNITURE
The situation:
Every person in the UK is being poisoned in their own homes - contracting cancers, respiratory diseases, thyroid illnesses and more, with children particularly vulnerable - because they contain the world's highest levels of toxic flame retardant chemicals, mostly in our furniture, employed to comply with the UK's tough furniture fire safety laws which the government itself proved nine years ago do not even work!
This campaign is to help bring about non-toxic upholstered furniture that provides the same fire safety the rest of the world enjoys and which will bring and end to citizens and firefighters suffering cancers at rates way above normal.
What you can do:
The Office for Product Safety and Standards has just gone out to consultation - for the third time! - on their proposals for new furniture fire safety standards. They say they want to hear from you, and the public can in fact make all the difference. When first California then the rest of the USA wanted to change its furniture fire standards for the better, getting rid of all toxic flame retardants, there were literally hundreds of comments of support by the public sent in to the consultation. By contrast, the previous two UK consultations received no public responses at all. This is no one's fault, since the public has been largely kept in the dark about this massive scandal. But now is your chance to make a difference, because if the OPSS receives hundreds, even dozens of complaints, believe me it will be forced to act finally in the public interest.
The consultation and ways to respond to it can be found here. I recommend simply writing your response direct in an email to the address provided. Otherwise you will have to go through their entire series of questions which is time-consuming and confusing because frankly no one, least of all the OPSS, understands what's behind all of their and confusing specific questions. Keep it simple!
Obviously, you need to understand what you are saying in your response. However, time is short and the OPSS has shown many signs that it intends to go ahead with its proposals whatever anyone says; therefore, it's vital that we respond in numbers on key points. There is plenty of information on this blog to guide you, including the site page "OPSS's 2013 consultation".
Here are a few suggested points you might make:
THE CAMPAIGN FOR SAFE FURNITURE
The situation:
Every person in the UK is being poisoned in their own homes - contracting cancers, respiratory diseases, thyroid illnesses and more, with children particularly vulnerable - because they contain the world's highest levels of toxic flame retardant chemicals, mostly in our furniture, employed to comply with the UK's tough furniture fire safety laws which the government itself proved nine years ago do not even work!
This campaign is to help bring about non-toxic upholstered furniture that provides the same fire safety the rest of the world enjoys and which will bring and end to citizens and firefighters suffering cancers at rates way above normal.
What you can do:
The Office for Product Safety and Standards has just gone out to consultation - for the third time! - on their proposals for new furniture fire safety standards. They say they want to hear from you, and the public can in fact make all the difference. When first California then the rest of the USA wanted to change its furniture fire standards for the better, getting rid of all toxic flame retardants, there were literally hundreds of comments of support by the public sent in to the consultation. By contrast, the previous two UK consultations received no public responses at all. This is no one's fault, since the public has been largely kept in the dark about this massive scandal. But now is your chance to make a difference, because if the OPSS receives hundreds, even dozens of complaints, believe me it will be forced to act finally in the public interest.
The consultation and ways to respond to it can be found here. I recommend simply writing your response direct in an email to the address provided. Otherwise you will have to go through their entire series of questions which is time-consuming and confusing because frankly no one, least of all the OPSS, understands what's behind all of their and confusing specific questions. Keep it simple!
Obviously, you need to understand what you are saying in your response. However, time is short and the OPSS has shown many signs that it intends to go ahead with its proposals whatever anyone says; therefore, it's vital that we respond in numbers on key points. There is plenty of information on this blog to guide you, including the site page "OPSS's 2013 consultation".
Here are a few suggested points you might make:
- These new proposals will do nothing about the fact the current regulations are not fit for purpose and just make our furniture more toxic with high levels of flame retardant chemicals, both wearing off into our homes and by making home fires much more toxic, e.g. full of hydrogen cyanide fumes that are deadly. Please, therefore, implement the recommendations of the Environmental Audit Committee in 2019, to follow the rest of the world in providing just a cigarette/smoulder test which will eliminate flame retardants from our furniture.
- Also as recommended by the Environmental Audit Committee, please take children's mattresses and other child upholstered products out of scope of these regulations immediately, as the USA has done with its furniture flammability requirements.
- Please also follow the lead of the USA and ban flame retardants from upholstered furniture products.
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