The British Furniture Confederation welcomes the publication of the report and its various calls for action to reduce toxic chemicals in everyday life.
We believe the furniture industry is fully in support of the need to identify and reduce the use of hazardous fire-retardant chemicals while still maintaining a high degree of fire safety. We have been pressing BEIS for its response to the 2016 consultations on the furniture fire safety regulations for many months.
We will now take a close look at the report’s findings and recommendations and look forward to engaging with government on the way forward. Government and the whole supply chain must now work together as a matter of urgency to try to find solutions to a multiplicity of challenges. Consumers need and want affordable furniture which is both fire safe, chemical safe and, in future, easily recyclable. The industry has a duty to place safe products on the market which comply with current legislation. Appropriate robust fully independent research is urgently needed to fully understand exactly what future consumer safety and environmental legislation should look like.