Your couch should have a tag stating if flame retardants are present. If you have upholstered furniture manufactured before 2015 it is likely to contain flame retardants. However, you might be able to replace the foam with healthier flame retardant-free material and keep the furniture.
Does furniture have to be flame retardant?
The new standard provides for better fire safety in furniture and children's products without the need for flame retardant chemicals. In 2015 the Institute and our colleagues petitioned the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) to ban products, including furniture, containing any organohalogen flame retardant.
What is fire retardant furniture?
Fire retardant fabric is material that, you guessed it, is slow to catch fire and burn. Some fabrics are more flammable than others; any fabric that's used to cover furniture, windows, walls or ceilings has to meet strict regulations and is tested for its flammability.30 May 2019
Are couches treated with flame retardant?
Thanks to greater public awareness, and research showing couches don't need to be infused with flame-retardants to be safe, “these chemicals are under control now in new furniture,” Blum says. But in older couches, flame retardants are “pretty much always present,” Bradman says.24 Aug 2016
Is flame retardant toxic?
Flame Retardants have been shown to cause neurological damage, hormone disruption, and cancer. One of the biggest dangers of some flame retardants is that they bioaccumulate in humans, causing long-term chronic health problems as bodies contain higher and higher levels of these toxic chemicals.
Are flame retardants still used in furniture?
As mentioned, many furniture manufacturers are no longer using flame retardants, thanks to an update to California's furniture flammability standard, TB117-2013. Most furniture that meets this standard will also include a label stating whether the product contains flame retardants.
What is flame retardant on furniture?
Upholstered furniture from this era is riddled with flame retardants, chemicals that the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences says were “added or applied to materials in order to slow or prevent the start/growth of fire” in homes. And it's not just humans who are exposed to these chemicals.28 May 2018
Is it illegal to sell a sofa without a fire label?
Any items not bearing this labelling may not comply and you are advised not to sell them until you have obtained expert advice - from the original manufacturer, for example. Any furniture that cannot be verified as 'safe' via the details on the permanent label need to be disposed of at a waste recycling centre.