Health Toll From Open Flame and Cigarette-Started Fires on Flame-Retardant Furniture in Massachusetts, 2003–2016

Abstract

Objectives. To evaluate the risk of death and injury in residential fires started on upholstered furniture, with a focus on open flame and cigarette-related heat sources. Methods. We used civilian death and injury data from 34 081 residential fires in the Massachusetts Fire Incident Reporting System from 2003 to 2016. We compared outcomes associated with fires that started on upholstered furniture ignited by smoking materials versus open flames. Results. Although fires starting on upholstered furniture were not common (2.2% of total fires), odds of death and injury were significantly higher in these fires than in fires started on other substrates. Among furniture fires, odds of death were 3 times greater when those fires were ignited by smoking materials than when ignited by open flames (odds ratio = 3.4; 95% confidence interval = 1.3, 10.9). Conclusions. Furniture fires started by smoking materials were associated with more deaths than were furniture fires started by open flames. Public Health Implications. Historically, furniture flammability regulations have focused on open flame heat sources, resulting in the addition of toxic flame retardants to furniture. Interventions to reduce deaths should instead focus on smoking materials.

Opportunities in Assessing and Regulating Organohalogen Flame Retardants (OFRs) as a Class in Consumer Products

“…To achieve this goal, collaboration between fire experts and toxicologists may promote a better understanding of the benefits and risks for both fire and chemical safety. 87 The authors consider that a side‐by‐side comparison for risk, such as injury, disease, or death between these two types of hazards would be beneficial to consumers and the scientific community. Collaborations among academia, government, nongovernment organizations (NGOs), and industry may lead to the use of less toxic alternative OFRs and more environmentally friendly alternatives.…”

Flame Retardant Concentrations Are Lower in College Spaces Meeting the New Furniture Flammability Standard TB117-2013

“…Fire safety scientists have questioned the efficacy of FR use in furniture, and research has shown significant health risks associated with FR exposures. − Certain polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), BDE 47 in particular, alter neurodevelopment in children, leading to decreased IQ. , They were also found to be associated with higher risk of thyroid disease among women, with stronger effects in postmenopausal women . Studies have found many halogenated organophosphate flame retardants (OPFRs) to be neurotoxic, toxic to development and reproduction, and carcinogenic .…”