British Furniture Manufacturers (BFM) has hosted a discussion event aimed at creating a consensus on fire regulations in the furniture industry.
With a broad range of representatives from sole traders and retailers to manufacturers and academics, the BFM Fire Regulations Roundtable brought together expertise from across the industry.
The aim of the event was to garner views on the proposed Flammability Regulations in a bid to understand the significance of the plans in relation to testing and standards, commercial viability, impact on circular economy and chemical transparency.
“What we’ve managed to do with this event is bring people with a wide variety of expertise, representing the whole spectrum of the sector, into one room to share their thoughts on the varying issues surrounding the proposed new fire regulations," says BFM MD Phil Spademan.
“This event was a first step towards the industry pulling together as a whole. From here, we can build, and consolidate, then start communicating with government via the BFC to lobby decision-makers and ensure they are aware of the issues in our industry.”
Held at the Furniture Makers Hall, London, the event included short presentations, a Q&A and four roundtable discussions.
David Fitzsimons was the main facilitator of the day. He said: “The UK has become an outlier globally in saying it’s more important to give people time to get out in the event of a fire, rather than avoid using chemical compounds in furniture that could have serious negative health effects.
“It’s why we’ve got so many different people in the room. All sorts of commercial implications and health effects are of concern.”
Ellen Percival, Jacob Lane, Paul Vaughan and Phil Spademan each led discussions at one of the tables, encouraging invited guests to share their perspectives on the pros and cons of the proposals, as well as posing wider questions to the groups.
Debates were interspersed with short presentations on specific topics, designed to trigger further discussion among the groups, with points of consideration shared at the end of each session.
The event was designed to ensure representatives from across the industry were able to attend and give clear feedback as part of a first step towards a collective view on the changes.
Phil Spademan added: “Although we don’t have an immediate solution, it is encouraging that the majority of people in the room seemed to be in favour of reducing chemical fire retardants from furniture and ultimately finding a safe route forwards to remove them completely”.
“From that perspective, the industry is aligned in making products healthier, safer, and fire resilient as well.
“It’s just been inspiring the amount of people who have given up their time from so many different levels of industry and different technical abilities. We’ve had people who work in one-man-bands to people who work for businesses with over 1200 employees, all putting their opinions together so we can have a consolidated view on how we move forward with the FR regs.”
