CPAI-84 and Silnylon Tents

I think it’s the latter: Other tents that use silnylon are skirting the law. Perhaps you can add fire retardants to silnylon but the vast majority if not all of them don’t have it. I’m no expert on it, but it seems that California doesn’t really enforce CPAI-84 so most companies sellling silnylon just ignore it. I expect if you bought a SlingFin through a retailer, they probably would ship to California.

Campsaver wouldn’t ship a silnylon tent to me in Canada nor to Minnesota which would have been the nearest location to me for cross border pick up.

Here is a very recent article published in outsideonline worth reading –>

https://www.outsideonline.com/2406767/flame-resistant-tents-carcinogens-cancer

We concur with the other companies listed with respect to silnylon and, as noted, Dyneema is in a different category.

-H

After wading through the DWR treatment thread, now this. Not that it comes as a surprise. I’ve never seen a sil shelter go up in flames, but my neighbor has, and says it was pretty frightening; and when silnylon first came out in 30D, I had to be careful sealing edges with a lighter, or they would ignite.

So took 3 fabrics I’m currently testing for performance, but not fire-retardance:
First: Extrem Textil 20D nylon – sil coated on both sides – 1.06 osy
Second: Rockywoods 7D nylon, silcoat on one side, PU on the other – 0.7 osy
Third: Sea to Summit 15D nylon, silcoat on one side, PU on the other – 1.06 osy

None of the vendors’ web listings mentioned fire retardance. The Extrem Textil 20D did claim compliance with “Oeko-Tex Standard 100 Class II and REACH,” but after spending some time googling in the weeds, including Wikipedia, found no assurances about fire retardance, or “retardancy” as google spells it. All the assurances related to toxic chemicals, not fire-retardance. Sense some circularity here?

Then held a raw (cut, not selvedge) edge to a flame from a BIC lighter.
The first fabric from Extrem Textil began melting, and ignited after a second. But had time to set the fabric piece down, and it went out.
The second fabric from Rockywoods behaved identically with the Extrem Textil fabric.
The third fabric from the StoS tarp also began melting, but ignited faster, and burned the finger tip holding it before I could set it down.

I’ve no idea why the variation with the third fabric, but since it is not superior to the first two fabrics in any way, I will opt for first two, the Extrem Textil and Rockywoods. Note: The StoS tarp was priced much lower than currently when I bought it.

With the DWR and some other issues, the toxic exposures arise during manufacture. This is the first time I’ve read about toxicity from use of the product. So would want more than one source and more information about toxic exposures to the end user. Still, I’m glad that at least the vendor disclosures do not mention fire retardant treatments to the fabrics I plan to use.

It’s too bad we are limited to educated guessing with issues like these, but that’s all we’ve got for now.

California has recently banned most fire Retards. Good idea.

https://chemicalwatch.com/70521/flame-retardant-ban-signed-into-california-law

In the distant past I ignited nylon and held it out.  Then it started dropping little flame balls of melted nylon.  It makes sort of a high pitched noise.  Very cool.  Amazing that any young adult males survive to become older adult males.  Other plastics do this.  Thinner fabric catches fire easier.

It seems like that would be bad for a tent, if it started dropping melted flame balls on me.

Good experiment Sam, I’ll have to try that.

<p style=”padding-left: 40px;”>Thank you Henry. I hope cpai84 gets updated soon so manufacturers don’t need to balance compliance risk with what is best for their customers.</p>

It sounds like the law Erica referenced contradicts CPAI-84.  Maybe it got abolished in the process.

Jerry, re:  “Amazing that any young adult males survive to become older adult males. ”

All I got was a tiny burn underneath a fingernail, so maybe was lucky.  Have never heard the “high pitched noise,” though, so may not have pushed the envelope enough.  Should have bought a good hot knife years ago, but was lazy and just reached for the BIC.  You have to work fast with the BIC, because the starter wheel assembly heats up quick.

We had a guy in elementary school who was into stuffing fireworks and other incendiaries into pipes.  At our 8th grade reunion, he shows up, and is this really dignified guy who spoke and had us rolling in the aisles.  He is an M.D. specializing in urology.  What was Johnny Carson s expression?  “Who would have thought,” or something like that.