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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 118 / Wednesday, June 23, 2021 / Rules and Regulations
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innerspring, box spring, and noninnerspring mattresses. The Curtain and Linen Mills Sector 314120 comprises establishments primarily engaged in manufacturing household linens, bedspreads, sheets, tablecloths, towels, and shower curtains, from purchased materials. This sector includes mattress pad and mattress protector manufacturing. The Furniture and Merchant Wholesalers Sector 423210
is primarily engaged in the merchant wholesale distribution of furniture, except hospital beds and medical furniture. Importers of mattresses are typically categorized under NAICS code 423210.
According to the Small Business Administration SBA, a firm in the Mattress Manufacturing sector NAICS
sector 337910 can be defined as small if the firm employs fewer than 1,000 workers. Under this definition, among the 250 firms identified by staff in the sector, 240 are small businesses that supply mattress products. The SBA
defines a firm within the Curtain and Linen Mills Sector NAICS sector 314120 as small if the firm employs fewer than 750 workers. Under this definition, among the 20 firms identified by staff, 19 firms are small and currently supply mattress products to the U.S. mattress market. Finally, a firm in the Furniture and Merchant Wholesale Sector NAICS sector 423210
is defined as small if the firm employs fewer than 100 workers. All of the 88
firms identified in this sector meet this definition of small. Under SBAprovided definitions, the majority of firms supplying the U.S. market for mattresses and mattress pads are small businesses.
2. The Mattress Standard The mattress standard at 16 CFR part 1632 requires premarket, full-scale prototype testing for each new mattress design. Prototype testing also must be performed for each change in materials of an existing design that may affect cigarette ignition resistance.
Under the Standard, four defined test procedures require the use of an SRM
ignition source: The mattress test procedure, the mattress pad test procedure, the ticking classification test procedure, and the tape edge substitution test procedure. The number of test cigarettes required by these test procedures range from 18 SRM test cigarettes consumed during the ticking classification test, to 108 SRM test cigarettes consumed during the mattress or mattress pad test procedures.
Furthermore, under the Standard only SRM test cigarettes from unopened packages can be selected for a series of
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tests, and if a cigarette extinguishes before burning its full length on any mattress surface location, the test must be repeated with a freshly lit cigarette.
Therefore, mattress and mattress pad test procedures require, in practice, six packs of SRM cigarettes, the ticking classification test procedure requires in practice one pack of SRM cigarettes, and the tape edge substitution test requires, at a minimum, two packs of SRM
cigarettes.
SRM 1196a is available for purchase from NIST at a minimum order of 2
cartons. A carton contains 10 packs, and each pack contains 20 cigarettes;
therefore, two cartons from NIST will contain 400 SRM cigarettes. Based on information collected by staff from a selection of domestic third-party testing facilities, a third-party testing facility uses an average of 10 to 40 packs of SRM cigarettes or between 200800 test cigarettes per month. These data provide insight into the number of test cigarettes used by third party testing facilities located in the United States, as an order of magnitude. A testing facility that uses 400 test cigarettes per month would need to purchase two cartons of SRM cigarettes from NIST every month.
3. Potential Benefits and Costs The SRM 1196a cigarette would have approximately the same ignition strength characteristics as originally intended by the Standard. The use of SRM 1196a cigarettes would not change the flammability performance tests or test method required under the Standard.
a. Potential Benefits Cigarette ignition of mattresses and mattress pads is a substantial cause of residential fire deaths and injuries each year. This rule will allow firms to comply with the Standard, with consistent and reliable results, preventing injury and death due to mattress fires. This rule is safetyneutral, so mattresses that passed or failed under the existing Standard would be expected to generate similar results when SRM 1196a is used. The level of protection provided by the Standard would neither increase nor decrease as a result of the change from SRM 1196 to SRM 1196a. Thus, there would be no impact on the level or value of fire safety benefits derived from the Standard.
Because NIST has exhausted its supply of SRM 1196, adopting this rule to require the use of SRM 1196a will allow firms access to an ignition source that would permit them to continue testing mattresses and mattress pads to the Standard. This rule would thus
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provide significant benefits to firms, since failing to adopt this amendment would mean that the Standard would require firms to test using an ignition source that is no longer available for purchase.
As an interim measure in 2018, when NISTs stock of SRM 1196 cigarettes was depleted, CPSCs Office of Compliance issued guidance stating that testing to the Standard could be completed with commercial king-size, non-filtered FSC
cigarettes. CPSCs Office of Compliance amended its Interim Enforcement Policy guidance, effective September 2020, to allow testing with either reserved stock of SRM 1196 or new stock of SRM
1196a. Accordingly, testing with FSC
cigarettes to the Standard is no longer permitted.
SRM cigarettes provide a common ignition source for all laboratories, while commercially available FSC
cigarettes do not offer that consistency.
The ignition strength of FSC cigarettes vary from one brand to another. Because FSC cigarettes are required to have an ignition strength lower than 25 and are often much weaker, FSC cigarettes would have an ignition strength substantially lower than SRM 1196a. As a result, test results would vary between a test conducted with one brand of FSC
cigarette and another, making testing, reporting, and enforcement inconsistent and unreliable.
Furthermore, FSC cigarettes are intended to self-extinguish when left unattended. Under the Standard, results from a cigarette that does not burn its full length are not accepted. Any cigarette which extinguishes before burning its full length on any mattress surface location must be retested with a freshly lit cigarette. As a result, use of the FSC cigarette as the ignition source would likely lead to an increase in the average number of cigarettes used for each complete test. FSC cigarettes would likely self-extinguish, requiring multiple freshly lit cigarettes to complete a test, thereby increasing the costs of testing and time burdens associated with testing.
In contrast to the inconsistency and unreliability of FSC cigarettes, SRM
1196a is a statistically equivalent replacement for SRM 1196, and will reduce the need for retesting and lighting fresh FSC cigarettes.
Furthermore, SRM 1196a allows for consistency in reporting and testing between laboratories. This rule specifying SRM 1196a as a replacement cigarette will achieve consistency and prevent uncertainty for industry, testing laboratories, and CPSC.

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