NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
BILL NUMBER: A6557
SPONSOR: Sweeney (MS) TITLE OF BILL: An act to amend the environmental conservation law, in
relation to prohibiting the use of chemical flame retardants
PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL:
The purpose of this bill is to limit residential exposure to chemical
flame retardants and to increase fire safety.
SUMMARY OF SPECIFIC PROVISIONS:
This bill would:
*prohibit the sale of residential upholstered furniture containing
intentionally-added chemical flame retardants beginning July 1, 2014;
*require manufacturers to certify, beginning December 1, 2016, that
residential upholstered furniture offered for sale in New York meets the
requirements of the "open flame flammability standard;"
*require the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), in consul-
tation with the State Office of Fire Prevention and Control, to develop
an open flame flammability standard that prevents flashover for at least
15 minutes and require such standard to be reviewed for effectiveness
periodically; and,
*permit DEC to authorize an exemption to the prohibition on the use of
chemical flame retardants upon a determination that the proposed chemi-
cal flame retardant does not pose a risk to human health or the environ-
ment. In addition, such chemical would be required to undergo a compre-
hensive health impact assessment conducted by the Department of Health.
JUSTIFICATION:
Recent studies have shown that approximately 94 percent of couches manu-
factured after 2005 contain chemical flame retardants - in amounts capa-
ble of being measured in pounds. The flame retardant chemicals were
added in response to a 1975 California flammability standard, TB 117,
which was developed in response to concerns about the large number of
cigarette fires. An editorial in Newsday described the process as
follows "So, the (cigarette) industry solution to these unfortunate
deaths was to add flame retardant chemicals to furniture. The result: a
vast increase in sales of flame-retardant chemicals, even though they're
ineffective. The "Chicago Tribune quoted the author of one study as
saying: 'The fire just laughs at it." The lion's share of furniture sold
in the United States meets the California standard due to California's
large market share.
Scientific studies have also demonstrated that meeting the requirements
of TB 117 did not accurately reflect real-world fire behavior and that
the addition of chemical flame retardants offered very little additional
effectiveness. A study conducted by the United States Department of
Commerce, National Bureau of Standards, found that there were no signif-
icant differences in fire resistance between treated and untreated
foams.
The chemical flame retardants migrate out of furniture and into house-
hold dust. Because of their tendency to put items in their mouth,
toddlers typically have three times the level of flame retardants as
their parents. This exposure is on top of what babies are born with. An
article in the Chicago Tribune stated "A typical American baby is born
with the highest recorded concentrations of flame retardants among
infants in the world." Many flame retardants, most notably halogenated
chemical retardants, have been associated with adverse health impacts.
For example, the Consumer Product Safety Commission identified the flame
retardant Tris as a threat to human health, and California has identi-
fied Tris as a suspected human carcinogen. In addition, when combusted,
chemical flame retardants can also form harmful by-products with the
potential to affect the health of firefighters adversely. A recent study
in San Francisco found that firefighters had two to three times the rate
of flame retardants in their blood stream than average and found that
the 110 female firefighters in the study experienced a risk of breast
cancer that was nearly six times higher than the general population.
In addition, there is precedent for banning dangerous flame retardants.
New York State has previously banned the use of the brominated flame
retardant PentaBDE, and banned the use of Tris (TCEP) in children's
products. This bill, which was developed after Assembly hearings, would
prohibit the use of chemical flame retardants in residential upholstered
furniture in order to decrease adverse health impacts and to ensure that
chemical fire retardant-laden furniture developed for the prior Califor-
nia standard does not continue to be sold in New York once California
revises their standard. (California has recently proposed revisions to
TB 117 to reflect more accurate fire conditions and the development of
the Fire Safe Cigarette Act, which has contributed to decreased cigar-
ette-related fires.) In addition, this bill would also require residen-
tial upholstered furniture manufacturers to comply with an open flame
standard beginning in 2016, reflective of a similar standard for resi-
dential mattresses adopted by the Consumer Product Safety Commission.
Although the advent of fire safe cigarettes has led to a decrease in
fire deaths, open flame fires continue to remain deadly. Statistics
indicate that approximately 25 percent of fire deaths involve uphol-
stered furniture, with approximately 50 percent caused by open flames
such as candles and 50 percent from smoldering such as cigarettes. In
order to encourage innovative, chemical-free responses, the method by
which manufacturers could comply with the standard would not be speci-
fied; however, a requirement of providing at least 15 minutes before the
furniture reaches ignition temperature and fire spreads rapidly would be
included in order to ensure that people have sufficient time to escape
safely. This timeframe would also provide additional time for emergency
responders to arrive.
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
This is new legislation.
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS FOR STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS:
None to the State.
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect immediately; provided however, that section
37-0905 shall take effect June 1, 2016, and the Department of Environ-
mental Conservation may adopt regulations necessary to implement the act
prior to the effective date.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
6557
2013-2014 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
April 9, 2013
___________
Introduced by M. of A. SWEENEY, GOTTFRIED, DINOWITZ, WEISENBERG, COLTON,
LIFTON, JAFFEE, ABINANTI, OTIS, ENGLEBRIGHT -- Multi-Sponsored by --
M. of A. GLICK, ROSENTHAL, THIELE -- read once and referred to the
Committee on Environmental Conservation
AN ACT to amend the environmental conservation law, in relation to
prohibiting the use of chemical flame retardants
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Article 37 of the environmental conservation law is
2 amended by adding a new title 9 to read as follows:
3 TITLE 9
4 CHEMICAL FLAME RETARDANTS
5 Section 37-0901. Definitions.
6 37-0903. Prohibition on the use of chemical flame retardants.
7 37-0905. Increased fire safety.
8 § 37-0901. Definitions. As used in this title:
9 1. "Chemical flame retardants" shall mean any halogenated chemical
10 flame retardant, including but not limited to TDCPP Tris (1, 3 Dicholo-
11 ro-2-propyl) phosphate, and any Phosphorus-Bromine flame retardants.
12 2. "Residential upholstered furniture" shall mean a sofa, loveseat,
13 chair, ottoman, footstool, or other item of furniture, intended for
14 indoor use in a home that consists, in whole or in part, of leather,
15 plastic, fabric or other material that contains cotton, wool, polyure-
16 thane or other natural or synthetic material that is placed in cushions
17 or on the frame of the furniture.
18 § 37-0903. Prohibition on the use of chemical flame retardants.
19 1. Beginning July first, two thousand fourteen, no person, firm, part-
20 nership, association, limited liability company or corporation shall
21 sell or offer for sale any residential upholstered furniture that
22 contains chemical flame retardants intentionally-added in order to
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD10248-01-3
A. 6557 2
1 provide a specific characteristic, appearance or quality, to perform a
2 specific function, or for any other purpose.
3 2. The provisions of this section shall not apply to the sale or
4 distribution of residential upholstered furniture resold or offered for
5 resale, or distributed by consumers for consumer use.
6 § 37-0905. Increased fire safety.
7 1. Beginning December first, two thousand sixteen, each manufacturer
8 of residential upholstered furniture that is sold or offered for sale in
9 the state shall certify to the department that any residential uphol-
10 stered furniture sold or offered for sale in the state meets the
11 requirements of the open flame flammability standard.
12 2. a. For purposes of this section, "open flame flammability standard"
13 shall mean a standard, developed pursuant to rules and regulations of
14 the department, in consultation with the office of fire prevention and
15 control, requiring residential upholstered furniture to not lead to
16 flashover for at least fifteen minutes of time. Such standard shall be
17 reviewed for effectiveness no less than every two years, with such
18 review including, at a minimum, examination of the standards used in
19 other states.
20 b. For the purposes of this section "flashover" shall mean the point
21 at which all exposed surfaces of the residential upholstered furniture
22 reach ignition temperatures and fire spreads rapidly.
23 c. For the purposes of this section "manufacturer" shall mean a
24 person, firm, partnership, association, limited liability company or
25 corporation that assembles or substantially assembles residential uphol-
26 stered furniture for sale in the state or imports residential uphol-
27 stered furniture for sale in the state.
28 3. The department may, following public hearings, adopt rules and
29 regulations authorizing an exemption to subdivision one of section
30 37-0903 of this title upon a determination by the commissioner that the
31 proposed chemical flame retardant will not negatively affect human
32 health or the environment. Such determination may only be made after the
33 completion of a comprehensive health impact assessment conducted by the
34 department of health, following a model recommended by the centers for
35 disease control and prevention.
36 § 2. This act shall take effect immediately; provided however, that
37 section 37-0905 of the environmental conservation law as added by
38 section one of this act shall take effect June 1, 2016; provided, howev-
39 er, that the commissioner of environmental conservation is authorized
40 and directed to promulgate any rules and regulations necessary to imple-
41 ment the provisions of this act on or before such effective date.
