IAR’s Brian Bernardoni, a government affairs director in Chicago, was on CBS’ local news in a story about fire sprinkler mandates.

Bernardoni in the few seconds provided by the Chicago station got through the message Monday that there are many other ways to make sure your home is safe, rather than defaulting to the costly measure of requiring sprinkler systems in new or existing construction.

IAR has long opposed fire sprinkler mandates, instead saying the decision should be up tot he individual homeowner as to whether the systems are part of a new or existing home. Installing the system could add more than $10,000 in up-front costs to building a new home, and there are often maintenance and inspection costs that can follow throughout the life of the system.

A survey by IAR in 2010 showed the mandates are not popular with the public, which stated in a poll that they’d prefer to make the decision themselves rather than rely on a municipality to force them into it.

Learn more about this issue at IAR’s Issue Central, which can be found here.