3 – Test Methods, Standards and Regulations

This chapter discusses cigarette ignition resistance tests followed by general flame and spread tests, standards, and regulations. The discussion also includes tests for smoke and toxic gases. After some voluntary and regulatory action to reduce cigarette initiated furniture item fires by regulating fabric/padding composites had been taken in the UK and US in the 1980s, few additional publications were produced. However, research undertaken since then with experimental cigarettes with widely varying parameters established that cigarettes could be changed to be less ignition-prone. A test method for the ignition propensity of cigarettes was developed and is being considered in an ASTM committee; however, it has encountered strong opposition from the cigarette industry. In addition, many tests are carried out on full-scale upholstered furniture, in furniture calorimeters, and in standard room calorimeters. In the US Mattress Cigarette Ignition Standard enforced by the CPSC, both prototypes and production pieces are tested according to a sampling plan. Different criteria for cigarette ignition resistance of upholstered items are used in the various standards.