|
| |
Recent Developments
On February 7, 2000, Coalition Director and Flammability Attorney Whitney
A. Davis escorted three burn survivors to Bethesda, MD to tell their tragic stories to the
Consumer Product Safety Commission ("CPSC"). The meeting was attended by
agency staff, several representatives of the mattress industry and their lawyers, several
representatives of the textile industry, furniture industry journalists, child
product manufacturers, representatives from the National Association of State Fire
Marshalls, and makers of fire-safe material that is designed for use in mattresses.
CPSC representatives expressed their concern regarding the problem, and
confirmed that they are analyzing what method may best reduce the hazard. Agency
representatives later stated that such a standard may not be enacted for many months, if
not years.
A press conference followed the meeting which was attended by all national
networks, and several independent journalists. Coalition Director Whitney A. Davis
expressed his concern and disappointment with the apparent lack of urgency at the CPSC,
and the slow movement by the industry on the subject.
Media coverage of that conference was broadcast to 138 network affiliates
that evening, complete with video of our young survivors, and illustrative images of
burning mattresses. Director Davis appeared that day on MSNBC, CBS radio, AP radio,
and the local Fox morning show.
Segments regarding the Coalition and the issue are scheduled to air on the
variety show EXTRA! on February 25, 2000, and on DATELINE NBC on March 7, 2000.
The Coalition is now preparing five Petitions to the CPSC for amendment to
the applicable regulations to provide for an open flame standard.
Several burn survivor groups,children's organizations, and the National
Association of State Fire Marshalls have expressed interest in joining in one or more of
the petitions.
From the San Diego Union Tribune archives:
Fanning the fire for safer bedding | Flame-resistant
mattress crusade takes boy to D.C.
Marsha Kay Seff , Staff Writer, 20-Feb-2000 Sunday
Matches and a mattress are a deadly combination. Ten-year-old Damon Bihl
learned this before he was 3, when a fire he accidentally started robbed
him of his left hand and ear and a major part of his face and scalp.
Now, after more than two dozen plastic surgeries and years of pain, the
brown-haired boy from El Cajon is fighting back. He and two other young
burn survivors flew to Washington, D.C., this month to urge the U.S.
Consumer Product Safety Commission to beef up federal fire regulations.
The trip was Damon's idea, according to his attorney, Whitney Davis, who
heads the Children's Coalition for Fire Safe Mattresses in Sacramento and
who accompanied the young trio.
"Mattresses and bedding fires account for more fire deaths each year than
any other home furnishing, other than upholstered furniture," Davis says.
About 27,600 fires originate in mattresses annually in this country,
according to the National Fire Protection Association. Nearly 30 percent
are caused by cigarettes and other smoking materials.
An additional 43 percent are caused by open-flame ignition, including
matches, candles and lighters. Child-resistant lighters have been the
standard since 1994. Four-year-olds kids can defeat them easily, according
to Davis. And almost 70 percent of the match and lighter fires are caused
by children.
Davis points out that the 1973 U.S. mattress standard is designed only to
reduce fires caused by smoldering cigarettes. However, he explains, current
designs do nothing to protect against open-flame fires.
According to Davis, "The mission of the Children's Coalition for Fire Safe
Mattresses is to raise public awareness of the toxic fire hazard in
mattresses, urge adoption of an open-flame standard for mattress and
encourage mattress manufacturers to voluntarily provide an affordable
fire-safe alternative to all U.S. consumers."
Davis' small client, Damon, was critically burned after playing with
matches. According to Davis, the toddler found some wooden matches, walked
into his mom's room to play with them and sent her mattress up in flames.
"Unfortunately, when you're a kid and you're doing something wrong," Davis
says, "you play in bed -- then hide it."
The attorney believes he and the three kids "started a firestorm" at the
commission by suggesting that the country needs to prohibit the highly
flammable polyurethane foam cushion in mattresses. For a few extra dollars,
they pointed out, manufacturers could use flame-retardant foam that's been
available for 20 years.
According to a spokesman for the commission, there are several alternatives
to fire-retardant chemicals in foam, and the group is monitoring ongoing
testing. Among the options, he says, is treating mattress ticking.
John Hall, a statistician at the National Fire Protection Association,
offers these additional statistics:
On average, about 580 people are killed and nearly 3,000 are injured by
mattresses fires annually, with more than $320 million in direct property
damage.
About half the deaths are due to cigarettes and other smoking materials.
Open-flame mattress fires account for 30 percent of the deaths.
About 30 percent of the injuries are due to cigarettes, and about 50
percent to open flames.
Of the 580 dead, 190 are kids.
Children are five times more likely to die in a mattress fire caused by
open flame, than those caused by a smoldering cigarette.
One-third of the open-flame fires are started by children playing with
matches or lighters.
Not only is the polyurethane foam used in most mattresses in this country
flammable, but it produces highly toxic cyanide gas, Davis says.
"Once the foam ignites, an entire bedroom can erupt in flames in mere
minutes," Davis says. "Victims often are rendered unconscious, and more
often die from inhaling the gas and smoke than the flames themselves."
Even so, he says, mattress labels do little more than caution consumers to
avoid open flames. "The warning does not tell you what the risk is."
In a lawsuit against the mattress manufacturer, Damon won a generous
settlement, although Davis says he can't disclose the amount or the
manufacturer's name. Because traveling to Washington, D.C., was so tiring
for the youngster, who's just undergone yet more surgery, he declined to
give a personal interview.
When the lawsuit was settled, Davis relates: "Damon asked me, `Did we get
the bad guys?' "
"I told him we had.
"He asked: `Are you going to get me my hand back?' "
Speaking to the Consumer Product Safety Commission was Damon's way of
trying to ensure that other children don't suffer like he has.
His attorney points out that flame-retardant mattresses currently are used
in many institutions, including prisons. The companies manufacturing these
safer mattresses, he says, are the same ones making the mattresses he's
lobbying against.
"It is unconscionable that, in America, convicted felons sleep safer than
our children."
Copyright Union-Tribune Publishing Co.
|