Lizzy Marvin, 16, died in Canterbury last year. Photo: Supplied
A safety advocacy group says it repeatedly warned governments about the fire risk from foam-filled furniture, years before the death of a Canterbury teenager.
A coroner has ruled official inaction on safety regulations contributed to the death of 16-year-old Lizzy Marvin, who inhaled toxic fumes from a polyurethane foam filled sofa bed when it caught fire in her Burnham home in May last year.
Coroner Mary-Anne Borrowdale chastised the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE), describing its hands-off approach to regulating foam-filled furniture as "deplorable".
The New Zealand Safety Council said it had been a long and frustrating job trying to convince governments about the dangers of foam-filled furniture, and it was unfortunately not surprising to hear of Lizzy's death.
A Coroner first called for reform back in 2010 after New Plymouth man Ricky Neill died in similar circumstances when a foam-filled couch went up in flames.
In 2019 the then-Labour government investigated regulating such products before deciding on non-binding industry guidance.
Safety Council chief executive Karyn Beattie said the group had been lobbying for regulation ever since.
"Over this time our project leader Andy Loader has written multiple articles, written to every MP, written to the chief coroner trying to gain some traction in at least getting an agreement that some regulation is required at a certain point in time. Unfortunately he's been met with apathy at every turn," she said.
One of those letters was to David Clark in 2022 when he was Labour's Consumer Affairs Minister. He did not respond to RNZ's request for comment.
The report by Coroner Borrowdale on Lizzy's death said an average three-piece lounge suite made of polyurethane foam had the combustible potential of 10 litres of fuel.
Lizzy Marvin died in May 2024. (File photo) Photo: Supplied
Since the introduction of such products, house fires had gone from taking 30 minutes to take hold to only three to four minutes.
Lizzy's mother Anne-Marie Marvin said she did not know the danger she was bringing into her home when she bought the brand-new sofa bed in 2023.
"The regular person has no idea. All I know from the places I work in is everyone is gobsmacked, and I guess I learnt the hard way," she said.
Coroner Borrowdale was calling for regulation that would push importers, manufacturers and retailers towards fire retardant alternatives to foam, and for labelling which advised consumers of the risk of foam-filled products.
Marvin said it was frustrating pleas for mandatory regulation were ignored for years before her daughter's death
"The fact it seems to have been ignored for so many years: 'It's all right they will regulate themselves', haven't they proved time and time again that they're not regulating themselves or taking action. What needs to be done to push it through?," she said.
Anne-Marie Marvin holding a photo of her daughter. Photo: RNZ / Tim Brown
Beattie said change was long overdue.
"We do have an alternative to the current situation and that's dealing with ethical retailers," she said.
"We now have the ability to regulate and to have high quality products that are able to be distributed at affordable prices. There are proven business models that mean we don't have to have these risky contaminants and flammable fire safety risks within the domestic home."
MBIE commerce, consumer and business policy general manager Andrew Hume said there was insufficient evidence to show mandatory product safety and warning standards would be effective.
"In our 2024 review of the policy statement, MBIE considered the options available under the Fair Trading Act and recommended continuing the policy statement as the most appropriate.
"That is because it is the only guidance available to New Zealand manufacturers, importers and retailers of foam-filled furniture on reducing the risk to consumers of harm from fire," he said.
Minister of Commerce and Consumer Affairs Scott Simpson said he would consider the Coroner's report.
"My expectation, as outlined in the product safety policy statement renewed by the government last year, is that the furniture industry will work to make sure the foam-filled furniture products they supply and sell in the New Zealand market meet the fire safe parameters of the policy statement," he said.
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