Conformity Magazine - January 2009 - (Page 12) by Michael Kirschner, Design Chain Associates, and Arlene Blum, Ph.D., Green Science Policy Institute series of proposed international information and communication technology (ICT), video, and audio equipment safety standards, under development since 2002 and believed certain to be implemented, was voted down in 2008. These proposed standards introduced an “accidentally caused candle flame ignition” provision, requiring that plastic enclosures of consumer electronics products resist external ignition from a small open flame. Household electronics products are currently well protected against potential ignition from internal heat sources. The candle flame ignition requirement would have, if approved, resulted in the addition of hundreds of millions of pounds of unneeded fire retardant chemicals to consumer electronics each year, based on a poorly documented fire safety risk. Some of the chemicals likely to have been used are known to be toxic and persistent; the rest lack adequate health and environmental data. Finally, these chemicals would have made the recycling and reuse of plastic from consumer electronics more difficult and expensive. The defeat of these standards prevented a potential human health and environmental catastrophe, and also provides useful insights into why and where improvements in the standard setting process are needed. The Origins of the Candle Flame Ignition Requirements The mission of the IEC Technical Committee 108 (TC 108) is 12 Conformity JAnUAry 2009 A to set and maintain product safety standards for audio, video and information technology (IT) equipment. These standards focus broadly on internal sources of hazards, such as heat and fire, electricity and mechanical issues, as well as proper labeling and testing. Enclosures of consumer electronics are often made from various types of plastic, a petrochemical that is naturally flammable. Flammability can be reduced, either by using different materials (such as metals), different designs, or by adding fire retardant chemicals to reduce the plastic’s propensity to ignite. In 2000, the U.S. National Association of State Fire Marshals (NASFM) began to promote the idea1 that electronics in the home could be susceptible to ignition by a candle flame, and proposed that electronic enclosures should be designed to resist ignition from such an event. The proposed requirements were not designed to protect against fires the size of a wastebasket or larger, but only against external fires the size of a candle flame, a fire scenario for which incident data was lacking. Indeed, four separate and independent sources, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), the U.S. National Fire Protection Association (NFPA)2, the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA)3, and the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA)4 each concluded that the risk of candles igniting consumer electronics was low, with the © Icefields | Dreamstime.com The Defeat of the Candle Flame Ignition Requirement When Product Safety and the Environment Appear to Collide:
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