1. The Grenfell Fire Forum
OUR MISSION
“Bringing fire and construction safety
to the forefront of Britain’s thinking”

2. The Double Death Threat of Failing Furniture Flammability Regulations and Flame Retardant Chemicals TERRY EDGE
Furniture and Furnishings (Fire) (Safety) Regulations lead official at DTI/BIS/BEIS
Responsible for the new ‘Match Test’ for the FFRs in 2014 – remains unimplemented
Freelance fire safety consultant since 2016

3. The Relationship Between Flame Retardant Chemicals and Flammability Laws
Mid-70s: USA, most house fires caused by smoking. Collusion between Big Tobacco and chemical industry – 1975, California ‘small flame’ test
UK: Woolworth’s fire 1979 – mid-80s same argument against self- extinguishing cigarettes – 1988 Furniture Regulations updated to include match/small flame and fillings tests
Massive increase in FRs in USA and UK

4. The Relationship Between Flame Retardant Chemicals and Flammability Laws
From late 80s home smoking in both USA/UK drops massively; huge increase in smoke alarms; EU introduces self-extinguishing cigarettes
2014: California/USA removes small flame test – no FRs necessary
UK & Ireland – No change to furniture flammability laws, plus overall INCREASE in FRs

5. Domestic Product Safety Law
Ireland: European Communities (General Product Safety) Regulations (EU law) - 'Voluntary'
UK: General Product Safety Regulations 2005 (EU law) - 'Voluntary'
EU: General Product Safety Directive (2001/95/EC) - 'Voluntary'

6. Domestic Furniture Fire Safety
Ireland: Industrial Research and Standards (Fire Safety) (Domestic Furniture) Order 1988/1995 – 'Prescriptive' (uses same BS standards as UK, e.g. 'crib 5' for fillings)
UK: The Furniture and Furnishings (Fire) (Safety) Regulations 1988 – 'Prescriptive'
EU: EN1021 parts 1&2, match and cigarette test under the General Product Safety Directive/Regulations - 'Voluntary'

7. Furniture Fire Safety Regulations in Europe
Only exist in UK and Ireland
Acknowledged barrier to trade
EU Treaty allows exceptions on proven safety grounds
UK fire stats convinced but the two government reports on furniture fires are challengeable
Ireland's Furniture Regulations justified by the UK's stats - not possible for Ireland after Brexit

8. Furniture and Furnishings (Fire) (Safety) Regulations 1988 (same for Ireland)
Three main tests: match, cigarette and ‘crib 5’ fillings
Flame retardants not required by law
Match test for cover fabrics: most are ‘backcoated’ with an FR paste; brominated FRs used – very toxic, often banned eventually
'Cellulosic' fabrics untreated, instead use an interliner which usually contains organo-phosphate FRs
Cigarette test can be met without FRs
Fillings test leads to 10-30% FRs by weight

9. Chemicals
Difficult to find an accurate figure for different chemicals – between and 80000
Difficult to find out how many have been properly tested – EU to evaluate just 21 chemical substances in 2018
HSE required 4 years and a 400+ pages report to make DecaBDE a 'substance of very high concern' under REACH
Pattern with FR industry is to declare a chemical safe; place it on the market and wait for someone else to find out it isn’t
DecaBDE still in millions of UK/Irish sofas and mattresses

10. Flame Retardants in Products
Massive world-wide rise since the 70s
UK (and probably Ireland) have the highest levels of FR dust in world
Mounting evidence that they cause cancers (e.g. thyroid) and other illnesses, with children particularly vulnerable
USA and EU moving away from FRs in products, particularly furniture
UK and Ireland last stronghold for the FR industry

11. Flame Retardant Chemicals
Two kinds of most concern, both found in furniture:
Halogenated – contain chlorine or bromine
Organophosphorus – contain phosphorus
Associated with health/environmental problems
Inadequately tested before marketed
Questionable fire safety benefits, especially in some products (like furniture)

12. Halogenic & Organophosphorus – Areas of Concern
Persistent – do not break down into safer chemicals
Travel – travel far from the source of release, e.g. raptors in Alaska
Bio-accumulative – build up in people/animals; most concentrated at the top of food chain
Toxic – FRs often have long term chronic effects, rather than immediate

13. Flame Retardants in Furniture
Chemosphere Dec. 2017, paper by Richard Hull and others, concluded that a UK/Ireland sofa treated with FRs is more dangerous than an untreated EU sofa
Richard Hull (on ’Newsnight’, BBC): "We burnt two kinds of sofas: UK furniture flammability regulations sofas with flame retardants and a European sofa without flame retardants and we found that the UK sofa burnt slightly slower than the European sofa but in doing so it produced between two and three times as much toxic gas as the European sofa"
Confirms US research, i.e. that FRs in furniture do not work anyway

14. Little Evidence in Support of Furniture Regulations
Two investigative reports by DTI/BIS, 2000 & 2009 – University of Surrey/Greenstreet Berman Ltd
2000 report by Gary Stevens, funded by the FR industry; follow-up report a few years later for the European Flame Retardants Association
Methodology for both reports never reliably established; has been challenged
In 2004, BIS proved the current match test does not work in up to 90% of cases in practice
Reports were based on the assumption that the the tests work; therefore, their findings are now invalid

15. Flame Retardants in UK/Ireland Homes
UK/Irish homes have highest levels of FR dust in the world
Gets into our blood, mothers' breast milk, pets, babies with many ill health consequences
FRs do not work: escape time minimal and they wear off from furniture anyway
Even if the investigative reports are correct, it requires around
20 million kgs of FRs to perhaps save one life (which has been blighted by inhaling toxic smoke anyway)

16. The Double Death Threat
UK/Irish sofas are ignitable and materials (close to the surface) more flammable because the match test is assumed to work
UK/Irish sofas highly toxic and when they burn produce three times more toxic smoke than EU sofas (Hull, Stec and others)

17. Cover Up (Grenfell Tower)
Nearly all deaths in Grenfell Tower were from toxic smoke (source: BBC) and most of it inside the tower was from burning furniture
The Fire Brigades Union recently claimed that furniture foam smoke was toxic pre-regulations and that it’s non-toxic now – in fact, smoke from foam is now three times more toxic than before
Truth about toxic smoke deaths/illnesses being suppressed

18. Ways Forward for Ireland
Brexit will change everything for Ireland, one way or another – can no longer use UK as justification for its furniture regulations
Irish authorities/standards makers should press Grenfell Inquiry/Hackitt review to rationalise and put right current fire safety regime
Adopt same requirements as US/EU, i.e. no match or fillings test; keep cigarette test – result: massive improvements to public health and the environment; greater choice of furniture imports

19. The Grenfell Fire Forum
TERRY EDGE