October 3, 2017, R.I. released a Safety Bill for children’s products and upholstered furniture (H5082), which banned the beddings and upholstered furniture treated with organic halogen flame retardant. The ban takes effect from July 1, 2019.

From July 1, 2019, all of the manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers are banned to make or sell those beddings or upholstered furniture with content of organic halogen flame retardant equal to or greater than 100ppm.

Organic halogen flame retardant mainly refers to any chemical substance with carbon containing bromine or carbon chlorine bonds (C-Br or C-Cl). Those flame retardants may be added into plastics, foam or textile materials. Limitation on children’s production will implement from July 1, 2018.

Any single person or enterprise who violate the above rules will be fined of no more than 5000 dollars at the first time, and subsequent recidivism can be fined up to 10000 dollars per case.

Since January 2007, R.I. has already limited two kinds of flame retardants, Penta-BDE and Octa-BDE.

In August, the Maine state legislature finally approved the ban of all chemical flame retardant in upholstered furniture, taking effect from Jan 1, 2019.

Moreover, states released technical rules related to flame retardant are California, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Oregon, Vermont, Washington and Washington D.C.

CPSC also voted to ban organic halogen flame retardants in furniture and several other house products last month.

C&K Testing reminds enterprises to be ready for the strict regulation of flame retardants. What’s more, products exported to US need to satisfy some special requirements of state act. Enterprises could strengthen cooperation with Third party testing organization to get professional solutions.

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