Effective September 1st, 2015 the bedding laws for Texas are formally rescinded. This means that Texas officials will no longer, license, inspect or regulate mattresses or bedding products for new or secondhand items. While this change is effective September 1st, we have been notified by Texas bedding program officials that effective immediately, no new URNs will be issued by the state AND other state-issued URNs no longer need to be submitted to them for recognition.

What does this mean? If your company has any plants with URN with a prefix of “TX,” then URN paperwork needs to be filed immediately with another state to secure a new URN. If your company has a URN with another state prefix, it is unaffected by the Texas rescission of its bedding regulations except that it need not seek recognition of that URN with TX. This means that companies will enjoy a substantial savings with renewal fees.

One last note: randomly conducted 1633 flammability testing by Texas official is now also a thing of the past.

If you need help in obtaining a new registration number contact Legal Label at 207 894-3300.

10/22/2014: The Utah Department of Agriculture and Food (UDAF) is expanding its online services to make it easier to apply for, update, renew and pay for certain licenses.

“These expanded online services will make it much easier for our customers to do business with us, said Ken Gee,” Information Technology manager.

With the new services in place, beekeepers can update the locations of their hives online, companies that have any type of license with UDAF can pay for multiple license applications and renewals in one batch transaction, and first time license applications can be submitted electronically. While the hive registration service only benefits beekeepers, the two licensing services can benefit all companies that have licenses or registrations with UDAF.

Below is more detail on each of the expanded services:

By state law, beekeepers are supposed to register their hives with UDAF and provide the location of each hive. To this point, beekeepers would usually call or email the updated locations of hives, and a UDAF employee would enter that information into the database. Now, beekeepers can go into their online account (http://webapp.ag.utah.gov/LicenseLookup/userLogin.jsp) and update the addresses or GPS coordinates of their hives. This new service saves time and benefits both UDAF and individual beekeepers. With current records, State inspectors can quickly alert owners of nearby hives whenever a hive disease or other problem is detected. Beekeepers can move nearby healthy hives to slow or stop the spread of disease, and save money.

Another online application upgrade allows companies to pay for multiple license renewal transactions at one time, which can save a lot of time. To this point, a pest control company, for example, with 50 pesticide applicator licenses to renew, would have to pay for the renewal in 50 separate transactions. Now, once the requirements of the renewals are met, the company can pay for all the license renewals at one time. (http://webapp.ag.utah.gov/LicenseLookup/companyLicenseList.jsp) This new feature impacts many companies registering and renewal several license types with UDAF.

Finally, up to this point, anyone applying for a license for the first time with the department had to apply on paper in person. While online license renewals have been available for 10 years, the new online service allows first time license applications to also be done electronically.

The full list of online services UDAF offers is available at: http://ag.utah.gov/online-services.html. Click on licensing to access all of the new services.

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October 2014: California Governor Jerry Brown has signed into law legislation that requires manufacturers of furniture and other products that must meet the CA Technical Bulletin (TB) 117-2013 flammability standard to label their products as to whether they include added flame retardants. Specific language will need to be added to your flammability label to be compliant. If you need help with these labels please contact Legal Label, Inc.

California’s mattress recycling legislation has been signed into law by Governor Jerry Brown. The Used Mattress Recovery and Recycling Act requires a mattress recycling organization to be established by a qualified industry association to develop, implement, and administer a mattress recycling program, including the development of a state plan by July 1, 2015, for recycling used mattresses.

For more information on how this may affect your business please contact Legal Label Inc.

September 3, 2014:  Last week, the California Legislature passed a bill that requires manufacturers of furniture and other products that must meet the CA Technical Bulletin (TB) 117-2013 flammability standard to label their products as to whether they include added flame retardants. Since mattresses are not required to meet TB 117-2013, the law does not apply to those products. Governor Jerry Brown is expected to sign the measure.

August 4, 2014 The Oklahoma 4th quarter, April 1 to June 30th, 2014 Quarterly Reports are late this year because OK has taken some time to modify the forms to a full page letter format, similar to the new OK renewal forms. OK charges $.05 for the total # of articles reported each quarter (3rd quarter Jan 1 to Mar 31, 4th quarter April 1 to Jun 30, 1st quarter July 1 to Sep 30 and 2nd quarter Oct 1 to Dec 31). For a new form and more information please contact Linda Williamson, Administrative Assistant, Occupational Licensing Bedding Program, at 405-271-5779.

There have been some new and exciting changes to the application process in Connecticut. They now have an online application easing the internal work to issuance an appropriate license. The process will continue to evolve over the next few months as they modify and implement necessary and important changes.

New online application
You can give it a test drive by registering, but not paying for the license. Manufacturers will come into the application process and supply all of the necessary information required. Upon a complete and satisfactory application a manufacturer’s license will be issued and sent via email. If the applicant provided verification of a uniform registry number obtained in one of the participating states, Connecticut will continue to recognize the registration, and the newly licensed manufacturer can utilize the URN on their products for sale in Connecticut. They will utilize an internal reporting mechanism to link the URN with the manufacturer’s license number.

Upon approval, manufacturer without a uniform registry number may utilize the Connecticut manufacturer’s number as their URN. For example: If you received the license as follows License # MFG.0012345 and your plant is in China your URN would be CT 12345 (CN) for Connecticut issued URN’s. If you already have a URN from another state of course that would be the URN that would be shown.

They are moving towards full automation and mapping. As part of that, they are developing a public online look-up that will link the URN with the manufacturer’s license number. This has not yet been fully developed. The only change that licensees will see is that Connecticut is no longer manipulating the license number.

There is no change to compliance and inspection of bedding and upholstered furniture.

If there are any questions, please contact Richard Maloney, Director, Trade Practices, Department of Consumer Protection, [email protected], 860-713-6213

July 7, 2014: If you do not renew your North Carolina license by the last day of February your status is changed to “Unlicensed Operation”. This means that as retail and other stores are inspected over the course of this year, products (URNs) that are not currently licensed will be pulled from sales and placed under an “Off Sale” order. NC is also duty-bound to inform retailers and other stores of distribution of the product’s noncompliance and “Off Sale” status. Products can only be returned to the sales when the licensing process is completed. You then must complete and Unlicensed Operation Application and submit $720.00, along with other required documentation. Please contact Kay Harris, Program Administrator, for more information at 919-733-3556.

May 1, 2014: Oklahoma has a new contact for the Occupational Licensing Bedding Program. Please join us in congratulating Linda Williamson, Administrative Assistant,  on her new position! For more information visit www.health.ok.gov or contact Linda by phone at (405) 271-5779 or email her at [email protected]