Over the last few months, the furniture sector has had to deal with a particularly delicate topic that has generated quite a bit of concern globally: the stability of clothing storage units and legislative requirements that have recently been introduced for the US market.

Such measures have been published referring precisely to the criticality regarding the stability of certain furniture products that are considered to be one of the most frequent causes of accidents at home.

According to figures reported in the US Federal Register (Vol.87 No 226 Nov 2022), between January 2000 and April 2022, more than 230 fatal home accidents directly or indirectly caused in the US by the overturning of clothing storage units occurred. Of these nearly 200 involved children.

These numbers are absolutely dramatic but, to the above-mentioned figures, many other accidents should be added, fortunately less serious, but which regrettably always involve children in the vast majority of cases (over 70%).

The activity was coordinated by the CPSC (Consumer Product Safety Commission), the US federal agency in charge of consumer product safety, which also undertakes precise analyses to assess the evidence of potential hazards caused by or related to the use of different products.

An activity that also includes the publication of mandatory technical standards, information and education of both manufacturers and end-consumers – as well as other activities, such as the possible recall of non-compliant products from the market.

In addition to the American standard, CPSC also considered the general worldwide standardisation landscape on this issue, including an analysis of other documents such as EN 14749, ISO 7171 and a similar Australian standard.

In the end, none of the standards examined were considered adequate to prevent the incidents that occurred in the American market. After this initial analysis, the CPSC determined that it necessarily had to adopt a new test method to meet the safety requirements expressed by the American government authorities.

In 2022, the ‘Final Rule 16 CFR 1261’ was published in the US Federal Register, which contains guidance on the safety standards to be considered mandatory for furniture and furnishings that fall under the CSU (clothing storage units) definition.

The provision aims to eliminate, or at least to reduce, the risks of furniture tipping over by complying with certain requirements that can be verified by laboratory tests and made clear to the end user by specific labelling.

A constructive discussion with the American Home Furnishing Alliance (AHFA) started on this first document which led to an evaluation of its practical effects on marketed products and its actual effectiveness.

In parallel to what the CPSC was doing, however, there was a second initiative that at the legislative level was called the Sturdy Act (stop tip-overs of unstable, risky dressers on youth). This study considered maintaining the existing standard, ASTM F2057, but checking whether it could be updated to meet the safety requirements expressed by the American authorities.

The manufacturers were much more in favour of this second option and the following discussions finally led to a compromise between the two strategies.

A key step at this point was the review that CPSC did on the new version of ASTM F2057-23, establishing that it met the safety requirements and became the mandatory reference for CSUs at this point.

The requirements in the updated ASTM standard are mandatory for furniture produced from 1 September 2023, and intended for the US market.

The standard specifies verifying the stability of CSUs complying with various laboratory tests: stability test to simulate a load in the cabinet, stability test to simulate a dynamic horizontal force, stability test to simulate a child’s use of a CSU placed on a carpet, interlock test (mechanism allowing only one drawer to be opened at a time); testing of anti-tilt systems (ASTM 3096, standard updated in 2023 as well).

ASTM F2057-23 applies to free-standing clothing storage units, including but not limited to dressers, chests of drawers, cabinets with drawers and/or doors, with the following characteristics: cabinet height≥ 68.6 cm; weight≥ 13.6 kg; loadable volume≥ 90.6 m3.

However, bookcases, office furniture, dining room furniture, jewellery cabinets, under-bed drawers, laundry storage units, furniture whose use is not intended for the bedroom, and wall-mounted furniture are not included.

Source: Catas, Italy’s premier safety and quality testing facility (chemical, physical and mechanical) for the European wood, furniture and building industries.

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