WARNING: KEEP ALL FLAME AND HEAT SOURCES AWAY FROM THIS TENT FABRIC: This tent meets the flammability necessities of CPAI-84. The material might burn if left in steady contact with any flame supply. The applying of any overseas substance to the tent cloth might render the flame–resistant properties ineffective.”
For those who’ve spent a lot time tenting throughout a rainstorm, cooped up and bored, crawling the partitions of your tent, you’ve most likely observed a tag printed with the above stern language someplace on the material. It sometimes signifies that a tent has been coated with flame retardant chemical substances as a way to cross a take a look at that confimrs the tent materials will resist catching flame below sure circumstances.
“These chemical substances aren’t good for anyone, not the folks making the tents and never for the top person both.”
That customary, nevertheless, is a long time previous and largely conceived with massive tents housing plenty of folks in thoughts. It was additionally written when tents have been made with totally different supplies than they’re now, usually canvas, some coated with paraffin wax for weatherproofing. Tent producers stored to the usual, often utilizing poisonous flame retardant chemical substances to fulfill the take a look at parameters.
In recent times, REI and fellow tent producers and retailers started wanting into whether or not or not that customary ought to nonetheless apply to tents at the moment, particularly contemplating the toxicity of the chemical substances used as flame retardants. Typically organophosphates are used, a class of drugs present in pesticides, plasticizers, and nerve gases.
The tent manufacturers partnered with Duke College a pair years again to look at whether or not or not these chemical substances may have an effect on their customers. It was an eye-opening examine, launched in 2016, that confirmed that not solely are the chemical substances current on the arms of people that arrange tents, folks sleeping inside them have been additionally respiration within the flame retardant chemical substances. Additional, the chemical substances’ composition and quantity used different, suggesting a haphazard use all through the trade. In accordance with the examine, “utility charges is probably not standardized; utility strategies is probably not adequately managed, or different, novel [flame retardants] that weren’t assessed on this examine are additionally being utilized to fulfill the tent flammability customary necessities.”
One of many manufacturers concerned within the examine, Mountain Hardwear took that data significantly. Beginning this season, all of the tents Mountain Hardwear producers and sells can be freed from flame retardant chemical substances.
“We studied the chemical substances and all seemed round at one another sitting at a desk and requested if any of us needed to sleep in tents coated in these chemical substances,” Mountain Hardwear president Joe Vernachio informed me over the cellphone about an organization assembly once they determined to commit to creating tents with out flame retardants. “All of us stated no.”
This isn’t a response to buyer’s clamoring for a change both, in response to Vernachio.
“We’ve had little to no client request for a change like this,” he stated. “We redesigned these tents based mostly on our values. These chemical substances aren’t good for anyone, not the folks making the tents and never for the top person both.”
You could be questioning if Mountain Hardwear will face authorized repercussions from making tents with out flame retardants. CPAI-84 doesn’t require the usage of flame retardants, per se, it merely is a set of flammability requirements producers voluntarily, for essentially the most half, adhere to. Neither is it a authorized requirement throughout the nation.
Mountain Hardwear consulted with their authorized crew and felt that the chance was insignificant when it comes to not adhering to the CPAI-84 regulation. Vernachio feels that almost all producers simply observe the regulation as a result of it’s there, with out actually questioning the toxicity of the chemical substances.
The Pure Useful resource Protection Council has been agitating to get flame retardants faraway from client items for a while now, involved that the chemical substances are carcinogenic; California not too long ago handed a invoice banning flame retardants from many family merchandise (although tents weren’t a part of the listing). Many firefighters have spoken out about their very own considerations for the toxicity of flame retardants. Vernachio additionally identified that European tent producers don’t use flame retardants of their tents.
Mountain Hardwear does stand to lose some gross sales of tents due to their determination. They gained’t have the ability to promote them in Canada, for instance, and a few retailers gained’t promote the tents for concern of legal responsibility or clients’ sheepishness. However there are additionally advantages in addition to lowering the toxicity of a product like a tent. Mountain Hardwear can use various kinds of supplies in tents that earlier than weren’t usable as a result of they’d be harmed by the chemical substances in flame retardants.
Does this step by Mountain Hardwear point out a shift that could be coming for tent producers throughout the nation? Unimaginable to say, but it surely’s doubtless retailers will assist set the tone. If they’ll’t or gained’t promote the tents, manufacturers can have a tough time making them.
Mountain Hardwear, for his or her half, really feel justified and assured of their determination, one two years within the making.
“I believe the [CPAI-84] regulation can be re-written or voided off the books completely,” Vernachio stated. “The difficulty is simply complacency. No one has completed something to vary them.”
