On April 21, the Tile Council of North America (TCNA) submitted comments opposing a petition by the National Floor Safety Institute (NFSI) that requested that the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) require manufacturers of flooring, cleaners, and footwear to label their products per an NFSI label and test products per NSFI-developed methods. As detailed in TCNA’s response, if the NFSI proposal were implemented by the federal government as proposed, while benefitting NFSI, it would put consumers at greater risk of slip/fall injuries and would cost manufacturers and retailers tens of millions of dollars to implement.
NSFI has made similar petitions to the CPSC before, in 2015 and 2018. Both were denied for numerous reasons based on CPSC staff recommendations as summarized in this staff notation from its 2018 briefing package to the CPSC Commissioners: “CPSC staff concludes that the 2018 petition does not resolve the Commission’s concerns in denying the 2016 petition, and therefore recommends that the Commission deny the 2018 petition. As with the 2016 petition, staff concludes that it is unlikely that the action requested by the petitioner will reduce injuries from slips and falls.”