About the Furniture Flame Retardancy Partnership

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The partners in this project intend to provide up-to-date and objective information to facilitate manufacturers’ decision making as they choose flame retardant chemicals, or non-chemical alternatives. The partnership recognizes that no single alternative is expected to provide an ideal solution to all of these issues. The project members hope to identify the strengths of each alternative, so that individual companies and consumers can make educated decisions that will best suit their needs.

Key Activities include:

• Green Chemistry Approaches:
• Identify and evaluate existing chemical substitutions for foam and fabric flame retardants. May also look at batting and other filling materials as appropriate;
• Target research needs to encourage the design and development of environmentally-preferable flame retardant technologies.


• Green Engineering Approaches:
• Investigate barrier technologies and alternative construction techniques;
• Identify and evaluate alternative formulation of foams;
• Develop and issue a targeted DfE innovation challenge to identify chemical and non-chemical solutions;

The partnership will look not only at ways chemicals can help prevent fires, but also at inherently flame retardant materials and designs. Cost, functionality, environmental, human health and fire safety attributes will be factored in.

For more information about the Furniture Flame Retardancy Partnership, contact DfE.