28th August 2026

Ireland’s furniture safety requirements align with the rest of the EU to reduce reliance on flame retardants


Ireland has taken a major step towards protecting its public and the environment from exposure to harmful chemical  flame retardants (CFRs). Modernisation of Ireland’s domestic upholstered furniture product fire safety framework through alignment with the EU General Product Safety Regulation (GPSR) will reduce the unnecessary use of CFRs. This welcome change comes as the UK Government considers updating its own outdated furniture fire safety regulations.

 

Ireland revokes outdated standards

In July 2026, Ireland’s Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment announced that the Industrial Research and Standards (Fire Safety) (Domestic Furniture) Order 1995, which set the requirements for furniture fire safety in Ireland, were revoked following a public consultation in 2025 (read Fidra’s response here). These outdated regulations and the prescriptive flammability testing requirements that supported them have been revoked but lawfully supplied existing products do not need to be withdrawn. Although the use of CFRs was not mandated, CFRs were the cheapest route to compliance with Ireland’s old flammability testing standards by furniture businesses.  The GSPR does not prescribe testing standards but voluntary European standards for upholstered furniture and mattresses may be used to support safety assessments.

For over 30 years, Ireland’s upholstered furniture flammability requirements have differed from much of Europe, creating additional complexity for manufacturers supplying the Irish market. Ireland will now align with the rest of the European Union in using the GPSR, enabling safer consumer products and harmonisation with the EU.  This change marks the end of a practice that has resulted in the presence of large amounts of harmful CFRs in Ireland’s upholstered furniture products and furniture waste. The UK’s current mandated furniture fire safety regulations and supporting standards are very similar to those previously in place in Ireland1. The UK faces the same problems associated with high use of CFRs in furniture and must also seek modernisation.

 

Impacts of chemical flame retardants and reducing exposure

A growing body of research has shown the risks posed by CFRs to the environment and human health 2,3. Human health impacts include increased risks of developing cancer, neurological problems, developmental and reproduction issues. Ireland’s regulatory changes will protect future human and environmental health from high exposure to harmful CFRs that are slowly released from long-lived furniture items over time. Public health benefits from lowered human and environmental exposure to potentially harmful CFRs will happen gradually as older furniture items are replaced with safer products (as seen in California)4. Ongoing Irish flame retardant biomonitoring programmes will provide evidence of positive changes for public health and the UK must also seek regulatory reform to protect the health of future generations.

In terms of fire safety, the presence of CFRs has been found to exacerbate fire smoke toxicity. Also, there is no conclusive evidence to show a benefit to fire safety from the use of prescriptive mandatory furniture fire safety regulations. Indeed, many other countries with less prescriptive requirements (including in the EU and USA), have demonstrated similar declines in fire fatality trends to Ireland and the UK without relying on CFRs (figure 1) 5,6. These trends cast significant doubt over the effectiveness of outdated furniture fire safety regulations. With Ireland the latest nation to modernise their furniture fire safety regulations, the UK is left as an outlier among comparable nations by still using large amounts of harmful CFRs.

 

figure 1: Estimated annual number of deaths due to fire, heat and hot substances per 100,00 people 6

Fidra’s asks

The modernisation of Ireland’s furniture safety regulation is a major step forward to protect Ireland’s furniture consumers, the environment and circular economy. As the UK considers updating its own Furniture Fire Safety Regulations (1988), Fidra’s Sustainable Fire Safety project asks that the UK government urgently takes action to also enable safe and sustainable fire safety by:

  • Enforcing proposed updates to the current outdated UK Furniture and Furnishings (Fire)(Safety) Regulations (FFRs) 1988, including the production of smoulder (or cigarette) only flammability testing standards.
  • Mandating furniture product chemical labelling across supply chains, ensuring that consumers, manufacturers, retailers, recyclers and waste operators can access important chemical information.
  • Driving innovation towards sustainable furniture product design that uses safer alternatives to CFRs.
  • Monitoring furniture fire smoke toxicity

Learn more about Fidra’s Sustainable Fire Safety project here, and follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram for more updates

 

References 

  1. UK Government (1988) The Furniture and Furnishings (Fire) (Safety) Regulations 1988 legislation.gov.uk Retrived online from: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1988/1324/contents
  2. Page J, Whaley P, Bellingham M, Birnbaum LS, Cavoski A, Fetherston Dilke D, Garside R, Harrad S, Kelly F, Kortenkamp A, Martin O, Stec A, & Woolley T (2023) A new consensus on reconciling fire safety with environmental & health impacts of chemical flame retardants Environ Int, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envint.2023.107782.
  3. Fidra (2023) The Impacts & Solutions for Chemical Flame Retardant Use in UK Mattresses: Evidence Review Retrieved online from: https://www.fidra.org.uk/download/the-impacts-and-solutions-for-chemical-flame-retardant-use-in-uk-mattresses-evidence-review/#:~:text=Fidra%E2%80%99s%20Evidence%20Review%20investigates%20the%20role%20of%20effective,%28CFR%29%20use%20in%20mattresses%20as%20a%20case%20study.
  4. Attfield KR, Berger K, Dodson RE, Bennett DH, Rodgers KM, Moran R, Stoiber T, Wang Y, Gao S, Smith SC, Park JS, Blum A, & Wu N (2025) Flame retardant biomarker changes with furniture replacement after flammability standard update Environmental Pollution, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2025.127326.
  5. Lane JA, & Hull RT (2024) Variation of flammability and smoke toxicity of upholstered furniture composites with fire retardant treatment J Mater Sci Technol, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmst.2024.02.034.
  6. IHME Global Burden of Disease (2025) Death rate from fires and burns Our World in Data. Retrieved online from: https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/fire-death-rates?tab=line&time=1980..2023&country=IRL~DEU~FRA~GBR~NZL~USA&overlay=download-vis.