Tip over hangtag rule proposed
Hangtap tipover proposed rule

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission’s proposed rule for a mandatory furniture stability standard includes a requirement for a new hangtag that would highlight a product’s performance and technical data for consumers, according to the American Home Furnishings Alliance.

According to the AHFA, the proposed rule concludes that consumers need “comparative information about the stability of products.”

The tag will display a stability rating on a scale of 0 to 5, that is based on results of the tip-over testing required in the rule. Clothing storage units (CSUs) covered by the rule would need to score at least a “1” to be considered compliant with the stability standard.

It was also reasoned that the system might improve the overall stability of units in the marketplace by “incentivizing manufacturers to produce CSUs with higher levels of stability to better compete in the market.”

However, CPSC admitted in its Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPR) for clothing storage furniture that, in all the testing and research conducted in preparation of the NPR, staff found only one unit that could achieve the minimum stability rating of “1”.

In an overview of the proposed rule presented during AHFA’s Sustainability & Regulatory Summit in September, AHFA Vice President of Regulatory Affairs Bill Perdue said he has yet to find a clothing storage unit, regardless of price point, that could reach a rating of “1” without modification.  AHFA’s furniture safety task group has tested hundreds of units representing a variety of price points and designs. Without modifications, none reached the minimum “1” rating.

According to the Alliance, a 189-pound, six-drawer dresser with drawer interlocks tested at the Summit according to the NPR’s proposed protocol scored an 0.89. “Based on what we’ve seen, every clothing storage unit on the market today is going to require modification, and many units will require multiple modifications, just to reach ‘1,’” said Perdue, according to the AHFA's report.

The NPR requires a hangtag 5 in. x 7 in. in bright process yellow to display this rating. The tag must be attached to the CSU “and clearly visible to a person standing in front of the unit.” Ready-to-assemble furniture must display the tag on the “main panel” of the consumer packaging. Lost or damaged hangtags must be replaced. The NPR does not address how the stability rating or other hangtag content will be conveyed for products on an ecommerce sales platform.

Required text on the back of the hangtag attempts to explain the stability rating system to the consumer. Using a rating of 2.8 from the sample hangtag shown above, the explanation would read:

Final adoption of the CPSC’s proposed rule would likely take years, but legislation passed in the House and pending in the Senate, known as “STURDY,” could fast-track a mandatory rule, which would likely borrow heavily from the NPR.

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Larry Adams | Editor

Larry Adams is a Chicago-based writer and editor who writes about how things get done. A former wire service and community newspaper reporter, Larry is an award-winning writer with more than three decades of experience. In addition to writing about woodworking, he has covered science, metrology, metalworking, industrial design, quality control, imaging, Swiss and micromanufacturing . He was previously a Tabbie Award winner for his coverage of nano-based coatings technology for the automotive industry. Larry volunteers for the historic preservation group, the Kalo Foundation/Ianelli Studios, and the science-based group, Chicago Council on Science and Technology (C2ST).