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USA: San Francisco publishes compliance guidelines on flame retardant ordinance

august 2018- Relevant for: toys and children's products

Last year November 2017, we informed you the Mayor of San Francisco had signed the citywide ordinance regarding the uses of flame retardant chemicals in residential upholstered furniture and juvenile products. Beginning 1 January 2019, covered products that contain or are made with any flame retardants at a concentration above 1000 ppm could not be sold, while the ban of products with electrical and electronic components will apply from 1 July 2019.

The Department of Environment has recently published implementing regulations¹ to provide guidelines for compliance and petition process of the flame retardants ordinance. Details are summarised as follows:

Compliance

• Upholstered and reupholstered furniture should affix with a label² that complies with the requirements of the SB 1019 and states that the item does not contain flame retardants.
• Upholstered furniture that contains electrical and electronic components and juvenile products should retain a technical file and written statement from their supplier to demonstrate compliance. Such documentation must be available to customer upon request.
• An establishment or any person may submit request to the Department for alternate methods of compliance.

Petitions and waivers

An establishment or any person may petition for a waiver from strict compliance with the ordinance and related regulations. A petitioner, may represent any number of establishments, submitting petition to the Department must demonstrate the difficulty or hardship for compliance.

• The petition should include petitioner’s contact, detailed product information, the identification and application of flame retardant chemicals, together with the justification and supporting documentation why the chemicals are unavoidable from the products.
• Petitioners are encouraged to submit petitions early. Petitions must be submitted for upholstered furniture and juvenile products no later than 30 September 2018. The ordinance provides a longer petition period for products with electrical or electronic components which ends 28 February 2019.

[1] Regulations SFE-18-01-FR

[2] Factsheet on California flame retardants legislation