A "Proposed Standard for the Flairanability of General WearingApparel" was submitted to the Consumer Product Safety Commission in February 1976. This report discusses the reasons for the choices of experimental arrangement for the flammability test and the choices of pass-fail criteria.The specimen is cylindrical, to simulate a garment, and to eliminate framed specimens which often burn differently from garments. Criteria for the fire hazard of fabrics are the time to ignite with a specified gas flame and the heat transferred to sensors inside the burning specimen. The proposed standard specifies that fabrics which transfer little heat to the inside of the specimens could be used in all garments but would have to be used in garments which cover most of the body and/or fit loosely. They would also have to be used in children's dresses and skirts (children's nightwear is covered by an earlier standard) .Fabrics which transfer larger amounts of heat, and thus have larger injury potential, could be used in garments with normal or tight fit such as most present-day shirts, slacks, etc.If such fabrics ignite in one-half second or less, they would be excluded from use in garments. These provisions in the proposed standard were based on the need to reduce the number and severity of apparel fires with miminum economic and technological impact on the fiber, textile, and apparel industry. The present report summarizes the available knowledge in the area covered by the standard, and points out areas in which additional work is indicated.

This report gives an evaluation of three representative alternatives for reducing upholstered furniture fire losses. The project, the purpose of which is to test the utility of decision analysis in evaluating fire safety policy, has been sponsored by the Center for Fire Research, National Bureau of Standards. The analysis was performed jointly by the Program for Information and Hazard Analysis, Center for Fire Research and the Decision Analysis Group, SRI International. A preliminary project report was issued in November 1977 [1]. Since that time new data have become available which have been incorporated into the analysis. As this report goes to press more data are becoming available, which we will incorporate into any subsequent refinements of this analysis. Toward that end, we solicit comments from, the reader on new data sources as well as criticisms of the methods used.

This paper presents preliminary results from a pilot project designed to test the utility of applying decision analysis to fire hazard problems. To test the methodology, an analysis is being performed to determine the effectiveness and economic consequences of alternative Intervention strategies for reducing upholstered furniture fire losses in residences. A probabilistic model has been developed to assess quantitatively the expected fire losses under each alternative. This paper describes the analysis on one alternative: the proposed upholstered furniture standard currently under consideration by the Consumer Product Safety Commission. The loss model for this alternative is described in some detail. Preliminary results on costs, losses, and cost plus loss to society and the present value of these quantities are presented.A subsequent report will update this analysis with revised data, and present a comparison of the proposed standard with other alternative strategies.

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