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September 17, 2018

Information For: State of California, Department of Consumer Affairs 

4244 South Market Court, Suite D, Sacramento, CA 95834

(916) 999-2041

reg_change@dca.ca.gov

From: Drs. Mauro Zammarano, William M. Pitts, Anthony Hamins, and Richard Gann (NIST contractor),

 Fire Research Division, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)

Subject: Comments for consideration on the proposed rulemaking action to consider revising sections 

1374 and 1374.3 of Division 3 of Title 4 of the California Code of Regulations

Thank you for the opportunity to comment on the proposed revision to sections 1374 and 1374.3 of 

Division 3 of Title 4 of the California Code of Regulations. NIST provides these comments to offer 

scientific feedback on statements made in the proposed rulemaking. Listed below are statements from 

the published notice of the proposed action and our associated scientific comments for your 

consideration.

1) “This proposal would eliminate the TB 133 test standard and accompanying label requirements

because TB 133 is a redundant test standard that causes confusion within the industry and presents

unnecessary health risks.” (Page 1, Paragraph 5, Line 5)

a) Comments

i) TB 117-2013 is a test to evaluate the smoldering ignition (e.g.; cigarette) of upholstered

furniture.[1] TB 133 is a test to evaluate the open flame ignition (e.g.; candle) of

upholstered furniture.[2] Scientists have shown the ignition mechanism [3,4] and mitigation

strategies [5] differ for these two types of ignition sources. Protection from a smoldering

ignition source, such as a cigarette, can result in increasing the fire hazard from the other

type of ignition source, such as an open flame.[3,5]

ii) Most fire losses (civilian deaths and injuries, and property damage) from upholstered

furniture fires occur after the fire spreads beyond the upholstered furniture.[6] Since

smoldering is a localized combustion process, for fire to spread beyond the upholstered

furniture, smoldering must transition to flaming.[3,4,6] Limiting the size of a fire is an

important and commonly used metric for reducing fire risk [4,7,8,9] (e.g.; TB 133 [2] and

CPSC 16 CFR 1633 [8]).

2) “In addition, by reducing the need for flame retardant chemicals, this action is anticipated to

improve public health by reducing exposure to carcinogenic organohalogen flame retardants.”

(Page 4, Paragraph 3, Line 4)

a) Comments

i) There are technologies that have been shown to reduce upholstered furniture flammability

without the use of carcinogenic organohalogen flame retardants.[9] For example, a
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commercial fire barrier is advertised as a “PBDE (polybrominated diphenyl ether) free and 

halogen free” fire barrier that “should pass California Technical Bulletin 133”.[10]

ii) According to the National Research Council (NRC), certain chemical flame retardants that 

aren’t considered carcinogenic have been deemed safe for use in upholstered furniture.[11]

NRC states that these safe flame retardants can be used by manufacturers to meet TB 133. 

For example, several inorganic additives, including alumina trihydrate, have been deemed 

safe by NRC and, furthermore, NIST research has shown that these fire retardants do

significantly reduce upholstered furniture flammability [5,12].

References

[1] Technical Bulletin 117-2013 - Requirements, Test Procedure and Apparatus for Testing the Smolder 

Resistance of Materials Used in Upholstered Furniture, Bureau of Electronic and Appliance Repair, State 

of California, 

https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.bearhfti.ca.gov/laws/attach_11.pdf&sa=U&ved=0ahUKEwi

cgr6Si8LdAhXMMd8KHaX9CBUQFggEMAA&client=internal-udscse&cx=001779225245372747843:0ztv0grzez8&usg=AOvVaw0-mg9rXk3QP1XU0qn3HlDO, last viewed 

on September 17, 2018.

[2] Technical Bulletin 133 – Flammability Test Procedure for Seating Furniture for Use in Public

Occupancies Bureau of Electronic and Appliance Repair, State of California, 

https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.bearhfti.ca.gov/industry/tb133.pdf&sa=U&ved=0ahUKEwj

Gnv7ti8LdAhUIm1kKHSyWAOkQFggEMAA&client=internal-udscse&cx=001779225245372747843:0ztv0grzez8&usg=AOvVaw0lmmrRRGVupg5F6UL_Ow3Q, last viewed 

on September 17, 2018.

[3] T. Ohlemiller, Smoldering Combustion, NBSIR 85-3294, 1986.

[4] V. Babrauskas, Ignition Handbook, Fire Science Publishers, 2003.

[5] M. Zammarano et al., Smoldering and Flame-Resistant textiles via Conformal Barrier Formation, Adv. 

Mat. Interfaces, 3(23), 2016; M. D. W. van Krevelen, Polymer 1975, 16, 615.

[6] M. Ahrens, Home Fires that Began with Upholstered Furniture, NFPA, 2017.

[7] T. Ohlemiller, Estimating reduced fire risk resulting from an improved mattress flammability 

standard, NIST Technical Note 1446, 2002, 

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=6&ved=2ahUKEwiLyczplMLdAhU

JzFMKHeA2Cn4QFjAFegQIBBAC&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.gpo.gov%2Ffdsys%2Fpkg%2FGOVPUB-C13-

3e563a6fbf3ce06db9e541abe9f99642%2Fpdf%2FGOVPUB-C13-

3e563a6fbf3ce06db9e541abe9f99642.pdf&usg=AOvVaw1z-I7eR2YDAeCtoS7j2nq-, last viewed on 

September 17, 2018. 

[8] 16 CFR 1633 Standard for the Flammability of Mattress Set, Consumer Product Safety Commission, 

https://www.cpsc.gov/s3fs-public/pdfs/blk_media_mattsets.pdf, last viewed on September 14, 2018.

[9] K. Storesund, Fire Safe Upholstered Furniture – Alternative Strategies to use of chemical flame 

retardants, SPFR Report A15 20124:2, https://risefr.no/media/publikasjoner/upload/2015/rapport-spfra15-20124-2.pdf, last viewed on September 14, 2018.

[10] https://customlaminations.com/services/firebloc/, last viewed on September 14, 2018.

[11] Toxicological Risks of Selected Flame-Retardants Chemicals, National Research Council, National 

Academy Press, Washington, D.C., 2000., available at https://www.nap.edu/catalog/9841/toxicologicalrisks-of-selected-flame-retardant-chemicals. 

[12] https://www.nist.gov/el/fire-research-division-73300/flammability-reduction-73304/upholsteredfurniture-fire-videos, last viewed om September 14, 2018.