fire resistance

FIRE RESISTANT VS FIRE RETARDANT

A material that is fire resistant is almost un-burnable where as a material that is fire retardant will burn but very slowly.

Many people think of both words having the same definition but they don’t. Some companies making products that are fire retardant do not differentiate their product from the true fire resistant product. They may claim it is semantics. I say that it is disingenuous. But then again they who sell these products probably do not know the difference.

I started thinking about the fire resistant materials that I use for my arctic oil field workers clothing and became knowledgeable of the fact that Nomex is a fire resistant material. Yes it can start to burn but it will self-extinguish when the source of flame is removed. It has been in use for my purposes as well as racing driver’s underwear and fighter pilots underwear for years as well as uses for products I am not knowledgeable about.

I use the Nomex fabric also for my over boots, mukluks, mittens, head coves as well as my Antarctic parkas and bibs. If anyone wants any of the other parkas that I presently make made with the Nomex and my fire resistant Lamilite insulation just call for pricing.

CHEMICALS

I find it remarkably disappointing to know that the companies that fabricate or have fabricated for them textile products that are saturated with chemicals keep with it “in-spite” of all the knowledge we have been acquiring over the past few years that are not healthy for us to wear due to the leaching of the chemicals.

We have learned from rei that their tents are coated with fire retardant chemicals that not only come off the materials on our hands but give off fumes but still they sell them. I am told that they sell sleeping bags with fire retardant chemicals coating the fabrics so I can only assume the chemicals come off and are leaching on to your skin over all of your body and the fumes are now close to you mouth and nose. The reality is that they are singularly selling these products all retailers of the same products are selling these products.

When it comes to clothing there are chemical companies advertising they have a chemical that will end body odor, they do not understand that body odor comes from dirt collected on the body hair it does not originate from within the body. So the chemicals used to eliminate body odor leach into the body which is not a desirable action to take place, who wants to be bathed in chemicals? I doubt anyone does.

Are the people who run these companies so brain dead that they simply do not care what they sell in their stores? Personally I think the answer is YES!!!

I am one of the few owners of a company who has a direct communication with the customers who support Wiggy’s and I can assure you almost literally all callers and writers tell me one of the reasons they spend money with me is because I have stayed a- way from chemicals being applied to the fabrics I use. It is comments from these people who have spoken with representatives of other companies who tell them their products have this or that chemical applied to the fabrics used for whatever.

Maybe one day in time new blood will take the reins of these companies and they will have seen the light and change what materials are used to make the products they sell.

Until then I may be the one and only and that is a sad commentary on the outdoor industry which incidentally now serves more than just campers.