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Consumer Product Safety Commission: Additional Steps Needed to Assess Fire Hazards of Upholstered Furniture

HEHS-00-3 Published: Nov 17, 1999. Publicly Released: Nov 17, 1999.
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Highlights

Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO provided information on the Consumer Product Safety Commission's (CPSC) study on whether to set a flammability standard for sofas, chairs, and other upholstered furniture, focusing on the: (1) methodology CPSC used to estimate the magnitude of the fire hazard that the standard would address; and (2) reliability of this methodology for producing sound estimates of the hazard that the standard would address.

Recommendations

Recommendations for Executive Action

Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Consumer Product Safety Commission To resolve issues surrounding the data and assumptions used in preparing the cost-benefit analysis for a potential standard to protect against fire hazards associated with upholstered furniture, the Chairman, CPSC, should direct CPSC staff to conduct additional and more detailed analyses of key assumptions including, but not limited to, assessing the precision surrounding National Fire Protection Association national fire loss estimates and their impact on estimated benefits attributable to the standard.
Closed – Implemented
In September 2000, CPSC staff informed GAO that they were funding a special study to develop more precise fire loss estimates.
Consumer Product Safety Commission To resolve issues surrounding the data and assumptions used in preparing the cost-benefit analysis for a potential standard to protect against fire hazards associated with upholstered furniture, the Chairman, CPSC, should direct CPSC staff to conduct additional and more detailed analyses of key assumptions including, but not limited to, identifying a more accurate method to calculate fire losses that could be addressed by the standard.
Closed – Implemented
In January 2000, the Chairman, CPSC, informed Congress that the commission's technical staff were implementing GAO's recommendations to more accurately estimate fires and fire losses, and would incorporate the results of the analysis in their evaluation of the proposed flammability standard's costs and benefits.
Consumer Product Safety Commission The Chairman, CPSC, should incorporate any necessary revisions identified by these analyses into the cost-benefit analysis of the potential standard.
Closed – Implemented
CPSC implemented GAO's recommendation to improve its estimation methods for fire losses.

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Topics

Business Regulation and Consumer Protection
Cost effectiveness analysisEvaluation methodsFlammability standardsHousehold goodsProduct safetySafety regulationStatistical dataFurnitureConsumer productsCommerce