BILL NUMBER: SB 147	INTRODUCED
	BILL TEXT


INTRODUCED BY   Senator Leno

                        FEBRUARY 1, 2011

   An act to add Section 19161.7 to the Business and Professions
Code, relating to furniture.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   SB 147, as introduced, Leno. Furniture: flammability standards.
   Existing law, the Home Furnishings and Thermal Insulation Act,
requires all mattresses and box springs manufactured for sale in this
state to be fire retardant, as defined to meet the federal standards
for resistance to open-flame test, and authorizes the Bureau of Home
Furnishings and Thermal Insulation to adopt regulations to implement
those standards. The act requires other bedding products to comply
with regulations adopted by the bureau specifying that those products
be resistant to open-flame ignition, requires all seating furniture
to be fire retardant and labeled as specified, and, except as
specified, requires all flexible polyurethane foam offered for retail
sale to be fire retardant. The bureau has adopted, by regulation, a
flame retardance test of the filling materials of residential
upholstered furniture.
   This bill would require the bureau, on or before March 1, 2013, to
modify that flame retardance test regarding residential upholstered
furniture to include an alternative flammability standard that can be
met without the use of fire retardants and does not compromise
public safety.
   Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: no.


THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

  SECTION 1.  Section 19161.7 is added to the Business and
Professions Code, to read:
   19161.7.  The bureau, on or before March 1, 2013, shall modify
Technical Bulletin 117 regarding product standards for fire retardant
furniture to include an alternative flammability standard that can
be met without the use of chemical fire retardants and does not
compromise fire safety. In developing the alternative standard, the
bureau shall consider a smoulder standard for upholstery such as the
draft standard proposed by the federal Consumer Product Safety
Commission (16 C.F.R. Part 1634, as published in the Federal Register
on March 4, 2008).