The STURDY Act
The STURDY Act
Butler Human Services® Furniture is STURDY Act compliant
Butler Human Services furnishes human service organizations such as developmentally disabled programs, supportive housing services, mental health and substance abuse facilities, emergency shelters, and fire stations with high-quality furniture. Providing safe, well-designed, durable products that solve problems for our customers is at the heart of our mission and our compliance with the mandatory STURDY Act is another for us to serve customers safely.
“We agree that furniture should be designed with safety and stability in mind. We look at STURDY as an opportunity to better help our customers,” said Chris Baden, head of Product Engineering. “The New Product Development Team is working to ensure that Butler products are in compliance.”
What is the STURDY Act?
The STURDY Act (Stopping Tip-overs of Unstable, Risky Dressers on Youth Act) (ASTM F2057-2023) ) is a law passed in December in coordination with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). The law aims to improve the safety of dressers and other free-standing furniture that poses a tip-over risk to children or smaller individuals. The law requires dressers and other clothing storage units to meet certain stability standards and undergo testing to prove compliance. Manufacturers of furniture are required by law to meet labeling, testing, and reporting standards.
STURDY passed in December 2022. An updated ASTM (American Society for Testing and Materials) testing standard was released in February 2023 and is required by the STURDY Act. In April 2023 the CPSC voted to adopt the ASTM requirements as a mandatory standard for compliance.
The STURDY Act takes effect in the fall of 2023 and The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) will actively enforce the standard.
What type furniture is subject to this ruling?
The act encompasses free-standing clothing storage units, including but not limited to chests, dressers, armoires, bureaus, wardrobes, and chests of drawers that are:
- 27 inches or greater in height; AND
- are 30 pounds or greater in weight; AND
- contain 3.2 cubic feet or greater of enclosed storage volume.
What does STURDY Act compliance mean?
STURDY states furniture must pass mandatory ASTM testing requirements involving testing furniture with various load scenarios to measure tip-over risk. Furniture that does not pass is unsafe and is subject to recall. Fines maybe be imposed on manufacturers who sell non-compliant products after the fall 2023 deadlines.
Who is affected?
The legal ruling is universally applicable to all furniture manufacturers. There is no distinction made between residential and commercial manufacturers.