U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission Considers Traction Labeling

Southland, TX, July 8, 2016—The National Floor Safety Institute (NFSI) has petitioned the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) to require floorcovering manufacturers to label their products' traction in accordance with the 2014 ANSI/NFSI B101.5 product label, reports Yahoo Finance.

The CPSC received more than sixty public comments, many of which were in support of the measure.

However, there is fierce opposition from flooring manufacturers. Mohawk Industries stated that, "Providing coefficient of friction (COF) information of product packaging misdirects the consumer and can lead to a false sense of safety. Our decades of experience in the floor covering industry indicates that wet and dry traction are generally self evident to consumers simply by walking on the product, or running a hand over it under the expected conditions (i.e.: wet and dry)."

In addition, both the Tile Council of North America and the Resilient Floor Covering Institute oppose the labeling, contending that coefficiency of friction does not equate to traction.