Responding to a petition filed with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, ASTM International Committee F15 on Consumer Products has revised standard F 1427, Consumer Safety Specification for Bunk Beds. The revised standard, which is under the jurisdiction of Subcommittee F15.30 on Bunk Beds, represents an effort to minimize the potential of a strangulation hazard caused by the design of corner posts.
 
“There is a new labeling requirement and a new design standard for the end corner post of the upper bunk,” says Bill Perdue, vice president, environmental, safety, health and standards, American Home Furnishing Alliance. “This will dramatically affect the design of the top bunk’s corner post.”
 
According to Perdue, who is chair of Subcommittee F15.30, the petition was originally filed with the CPSC by the Danny Foundation, a now-dissolved organization that was formed in 1986 to educate the public about the risk of strangulation associated with an occupant’s clothing becoming entangled on the corner posts of a crib. The changes requested in the bunk bed petition are similar to changes the foundation has brought about in the way that corner posts of cribs are designed.
 
Perdue says that manufacturers, importers and distributors of bunk beds are the main users of F 1427.
 
ASTM International standards are available for purchase from Customer Service (phone: 610/832-9585; https://www.astm.org/contact/) or at www.astm.org. For further technical information, contact Bill Perdue, American Home Furnishing Alliance, High Point, N.C. (phone: 336/884-5000; bperdue@ahfa.us). For membership or meeting information, contact Leonard Morrissey, Technical Committee Operations, ASTM International (phone: 610/832-9719; lmorriss@astm.org).

Release #7839