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How to avoid purchasing an unsafe sofa

Of all the furniture people buy for their homes, perhaps one of the most important is the sofa. Everyone needs somewhere to sit in comfort at the end of a long hard day; equally, they want something that looks stylish and inviting. These days, it should be impossible to find a sofa that is harmful or dangerous but, unless you take care to identify where your sofa has been manufactured, you could be risking not just your own family’s health but also that of your guests.

The UK has stringent rules and regulations for the manufacture of just about everything that the consumer purchases, but it seems that not all company buyers are following these rules and regulations when they source products from abroad.

When people think about ‘dangerous’ furniture, they are more likely to think about the fire risk, especially with upholstered items, but there is another deadly risk associated with furniture which few people are aware of.

A court case, brought by the largest group action the UK has ever seen in connection with injuries caused by unsafe furniture, is now reaching its conclusion. The injuries, which the victims sustained, were caused not by fire or even by the fumes given off by some materials as a result of fire, but simply by sitting on the offending items themselves. Certain UK retailers had unwittingly bought sofas made in China that had had a chemical called dimethyl fumarate placed inside them during manufacture. The use of this chemical, which causes painful burn injuries, has been banned within the European Union since 1998, whilst a ban on all imported goods containing the chemical came into place in January of this year.

One of the uses of dimethyl fumarate is to prevent mould from forming; consequently it was commonly used in the past for sofas that were kept in storage for a long period of time. The use of dimethyl fumarate is still permissible for use in countries outside the UK and Europe, so it is very important, when choosing a sofa, to question the supplier in order to ascertain exactly where the perspective purchase was manufactured. However, if the retailer cannot prove that the sofa was produced in one of the countries in which the use of dimethyl fumarate is forbidden then it is not advisable to continue with the purchase.

The sofa in any family home is there to provide comfort and relaxation for all members of the family. It is also a major financial purchase and one that is expected to last for a long time, it is therefore important to take care when choosing it by questioning its origins. If adequate care is taken when purchasing a sofa then no one who sits on it should suffer unnecessarily.