Standard Guide for Fire Hazard Assessment of the Effect of Upholstered Seating Furniture Within Patient Rooms of Health Care Facilities

SCOPE
1.1 This is a guide to developing fire hazard assessments for upholstered seating furniture, within patient rooms of health care occupancies. As such, it provides methods and contemporary fire safety engineering techniques to develop a fire hazard assessment for use in specifications for upholstered seating furniture in such occupancies.
1.2 Hazard assessment is an estimation of the potential severity of the fires that can develop with certain products in defined scenarios, once the incidents have occurred. Hazard assessment does not address the likelihood of a fire occurring, but is based on the premise that an ignition has occurred.
1.3 Because it is a guide, this document cannot be used for regulation, nor does it give definitive instructions on how to conduct a fire hazard assessment.
1.4 This guide is intended to provide assistance to those interested in mitigating the potential damage from fires associated with upholstered furniture in patient rooms in health care occupancies.
1.5 Thus, this guide can be used to help assess the fire hazard of materials, assemblies, or systems intended for use in upholstered furniture, by providing a standard basis for studying the level of fire safety associated with certain design choices. It can also aid those interested in designing features appropriate to health care occupancies. Finally, it may be useful to safety personnel in health care occupancies.
1.6 This guide is a focused application of Guide E 1546, which offers help in reference to fire scenarios that are specific to upholstered furniture in health care occupancies, and includes an extensive bibliography. It differs from Guide E 1546 in that it offers guidance that is specific to the issue of upholstered furniture in patient rooms of health care facilities, rather than general guidance. includes some statistics on the magnitude of the potential problem in the U.S.
1.7 A fire hazard assessment conducted in accordance with this guide is strongly dependent on the limitations in the factors described in .
1.7.1 Input data (including their precision or accuracy).
1.7.2 Appropriate test procedures.
1.7.3 Fire models or calculation procedures that are simultaneously relevant, accurate and appropriate.
1.7.4 Advancement of scientific knowledge.
1.8 This guide addresses specific fire scenarios which begin inside or outside of the patient room. However, the upholstered furniture under consideration is inside the patient room.
1.9 The fire scenarios used for this hazard assessment guide are described in . They involve the upholstered furniture item within the patient room as the first or second item ignited, in terms of the room of fire origin. Additionally, consideration should be given to the effect of the patient room upholstered furniture item on the tenability of occupants of rooms other than the room of fire origin, and on that of potential rescuers.
1.10 This guide does not claim to address all fires that can occur in patient rooms in health care occupancies. In particular, fires with more severe initiating conditions than those assumed in the analysis may pose more severe fire hazard than that calculated using this guide (see also ).
This standard does not purport to address all of the safety concerns, if any, associated with its use. It is the responsibility of the user of this standard to establish appropriate safety and health practices and determine the applicability of regulatory limitations prior to use.
1.11 This fire standard cannot be used to provide quantitative measures.

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Publication Date
09-Mar-2003
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ASTM E2280-03e1 - Standard Guide for Fire Hazard Assessment of the Effect of Upholstered Seating Furniture Within Patient Rooms of Health Care Facilities
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NOTICE: This standard has either been superseded and replaced by a new version or withdrawn.
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An American National Standard
e1
Designation:E2280–03
Standard Guide for
Fire Hazard Assessment of the Effect of Upholstered
Seating Furniture Within Patient Rooms of Health Care
1
Facilities
This standard is issued under the fixed designation E 2280; the number immediately following the designation indicates the year of
original adoption or, in the case of revision, the year of last revision. A number in parentheses indicates the year of last reapproval. A
superscript epsilon (e) indicates an editorial change since the last revision or reapproval.
1
e NOTE—The safety hazards caveat was added in October 2004.
INTRODUCTION
The traditional approach to codes and standards is the specification of individual fire-test-response
requirements for each material, component or product placed in a certain environment and deemed
important to ensure fire safety. This practice has been in place for so long that it gives a significant
level of comfort: a manufacturers knows what is required to comply with the specifications and
specifiers apply the requirements. Implicit assumptions, not stated, are that the use of the prescribed
requirements ensures an adequate level of safety. There is no need to impose any change on those
manufacturers who supply safe systems meeting existing prescriptive requirements. However, as new
materials and products are developed, manufacturers, designers, and specifiers often desire the
flexibility to choose how the overall safety requirements are to be met. Thus, it is the responsibility
of the developer of an alternative approach to state explicitly the assumptions being made to produce
the output. The way to generate explicit and valid assumptions is to provide a performance-based
approach, based on test methods providing data in engineering units, suitable for use in fire safety
engineering calculations, as this guide provides. The resulting fire hazard assessment focuses on
upholstered seating furniture items within patient rooms in health care occupancies. This requires
developing the fire scenarios to be considered and the effect of all contents and design considerations
within the patient room which are potentially able to affect the resulting fire hazard. This offers
opportunities for innovation, and ingenuity, without compromising safety.
1. Scope 1.4 This guide is intended to provide assistance to those
interested in mitigating the potential damage from fires asso-
1.1 Thisis a guidetodevelopingfirehazardassessments for
ciatedwithupholsteredfurnitureinpatientroomsinhealthcare
upholstered seating furniture, within patient rooms of health
occupancies.
care occupancies. As such, it provides methods and contem-
1.5 Thus, this guide can be used to help assess the fire
porary fire safety engineering techniques to develop a fire
hazard of materials, assemblies, or systems intended for use in
hazard assessment for use in specifications for upholstered
upholstered furniture, by providing a standard basis for study-
seating furniture in such occupancies.
ing the level of fire safety associated with certain design
1.2 Hazard assessment is an estimation of the potential
choices. It can also aid those interested in designing features
severity of the fires that can develop with certain products in
appropriate to health care occupancies. Finally, it may be
defined scenarios, once the incidents have occurred. Hazard
useful to safety personnel in health care occupancies.
assessment does not address the likelihood of a fire occurring,
1.6 This guide is a focused application of Guide E 1546,
but is based on the premise that an ignition has occurred.
which offers help in reference to fire scenarios that are specific
1.3 Because it is a guide, this document cannot be used for
to upholstered furniture in health care occupancies, and in-
regulation, nor does it give definitive instructions on how to
cludes an extensive bibliography. It differs from Guide E 1546
conduct a fire hazard assessment.
in that it offers guidance that is specific to the issue of
upholstered furniture in patient rooms of health care facilities,
1
ThisguideisunderthejurisdictionofASTMCommitteeE05onFireStandards
rather than general guidance. Appendix X11 includes some
and is the direct responsibility of Subcommittee E05.15 on Furnishings and
statistics on the magnitude of the potential problem in the U.S.
Contents.
Current edition approved March 10, 2003. Published June 2003.
Copyright © ASTM International, 100 Barr Harbor Drive, PO Box C700, West Conshohocken, PA 19428-2959, United States.
1

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E2280–03
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