Higher fire safety requirements obligatory in the UK and Ireland since 1988
Since 1988 two Member States, the UK and Eire have enforced regulations requiring all domestic upholstered furniture to be resistant to ignition by cigarette and matches and to contain only safe fillings which when set on fire burn slowly giving the occupants of the home extra time to escape.
This has effectively banned the use of standard polyurethane foam and requires manufacturers to use the much safer combustion modified foam or other fillings that meet the appropriate standards.
The extra time for escape created by the slower burning properties of the furniture has also made smoke alarms a more effective life safety provision, giving time for warning, response and escape from a fire involving furniture. Research has indicated that furniture not meeting such standards burns so quickly that even with smoke alarms the time between warning and response is so short that escape may not be possible.
Recent research indicates that between 1988 and 2002 the actual
combined benefits of safer furniture and smoke alarms in the