WARNING: KEEP ALL FLAME AND HEAT SOURCES AWAY FROM THIS TENT FABRIC: This tent meets the flammability requirements of CPAI-84. The fabric may burn if left in continuous contact with any flame source. The application of any foreign substance to the tent fabric may render the flame–resistant properties ineffective.”
If you’ve spent much time camping during a rainstorm, cooped up and bored, crawling the walls of your tent, you’ve probably noticed a tag printed with the above stern language somewhere on the fabric. It typically signifies that a tent has been coated with flame-retardant chemicals in order to pass a test that confirms the tent fabrics will resist catching flame under certain circumstances.
That standard, however, is decades old and largely conceived with large tents housing lots of people in mind. It was also written when tents were made with different materials than they are now, often canvas, some coated with paraffin wax for weatherproofing. Tent manufacturers stuck to the standard, usually using toxic flame retardant chemicals to meet the test parameters.
In recent years, REI and fellow tent manufacturers and retailers began looking into whether or not that standard should still apply to tents today, especially considering the toxicity of the chemicals used as flame retardants. Often organophosphates are used, a category of substances found in pesticides, plasticizers, and nerve gases.
The tent brands partnered with Duke University a couple years back to examine whether or not those chemicals could affect their users. It was an eye-opening study, released in 2016, that showed that not only are the chemicals present on the hands of people who set up tents, people sleeping inside them were also breathing in the flame retardant chemicals. Further, the chemicals’ composition and amount used varied, suggesting a haphazard use throughout the industry. According to the study, “application rates may not be standardized; application methods may not be adequately controlled, or other, novel [flame retardants] that were not assessed in this study are also being applied to meet the tent flammability standard requirements.”
“These chemicals aren’t good for anybody, not the people making the tents and not for the end user either.”
One of the brands involved in the study, Mountain Hardwear, took that information seriously. Starting this season, all the tents Mountain Hardwear manufacturers and sells will be free of flame retardant chemicals.
“We studied the chemicals and all looked around at each other sitting at a table and asked if any of us wanted to sleep in tents coated in those chemicals,” Mountain Hardwear president Joe Vernachio told me over the phone, referring to a company meeting where they decided to commit to ditching flame retardants. “We all said no.”
This isn’t a response to customer’s clamoring for a change either, according to Vernachio.
“We’ve had little to no consumer request for a change like this,” he said. “We redesigned these tents based on our values. These chemicals aren’t good for anybody, not the people making the tents and not for the end user either.”
You may be wondering if Mountain Hardwear will face legal repercussions from making tents without flame retardants. CPAI-84 doesn’t require the use of flame retardants, per se, it simply is a set of flammability standards manufacturers voluntarily, for the most part, adhere to. Nor is it a legal requirement across the country.
Mountain Hardwear consulted with its legal team and felt that the risk was insignificant in terms of not adhering to the CPAI-84 regulation. Vernachio feels that most manufacturers just follow the regulation because it’s there, without really questioning the toxicity of the chemicals.
The Natural Resource Defense Council has been agitating to get flame retardants removed from consumer goods for some time now, concerned that the chemicals are carcinogenic; California recently passed a bill banning flame retardants from many household products (though tents were not part of the list). Many firefighters have spoken out about their own concerns for the toxicity of flame retardants. Vernachio also pointed out that European tent manufacturers don’t use flame retardants in their tents.
Mountain Hardwear does stand to lose some sales of tents because of their decision. Some retailers won’t sell the tents for fear of liability or customers’ sheepishness. But there are also benefits besides reducing the toxicity of a product like a tent. Mountain Hardwear can use different types of materials in tents that before weren’t usable because they’d be harmed by the chemicals in flame retardants.
Does this step by Mountain Hardwear indicate a shift that may be coming for tent manufacturers across the country? Impossible to say, but it’s likely retailers will help set the tone. If they can’t or won’t sell the tents, brands will have a hard time making them.
Mountain Hardwear, for its part, feels justified and confident in its decision, one that was two years in the making.
“I think the [CPAI-84] regulation will be rewritten or voided off the books entirely,” Vernachio said. “The issue is just complacency. Nobody has done anything to change them.”
Thank you MH!
Conscious decision to protect consumer, that’s a brand that I’ll support. Too many dangerous chemical are being use in consumer products without serious consideration for public health.
This is so great! I hope that the other brands do the same.
Thank you, MH!
I hate when people use examples like “Often organophosphates are used, a category of substances found in pesticides, plasticizers, and nerve gases.”
While true, and while the substance may be as dangerous as those other chemicals, it is a misleading logical statement. You know what also is in pesticides and nerve gas? water.
Welcome to the party. Other tent manufacturers have not use flame retardant chemicals for a while now.
You sure about “other tent manufacturers” dropping FRs?
It’s May 2022 now – three years after your comment – and here is where we are:
– Besides MH, the only major outdoor-gear makers who appear to have dropped FRs from their tents are MSR, The North Face … and possibly some products from Big Agnes and Nemo. North Face is weird … on Amazon you can actually choose between an FR-treated or FR-free version of their current models, but no other websites give any indication of which version you’re buying.
– Some higher-end niche players like Tarptent, Fjallraven and Winterial) are also FR-free.
– REI, the dominant player, has dropped FRs on four of their tent product lines (specifically Wonderland, Skyview, Half Dome SL and Arete), but their many other models are still treated.
– Most major brands like Coleman, Eureka, Kelty, Sierra Designs, Alps, etc., are still using them.
– Still awaiting a response from Marmot, but I see no public indications that they have removed FRs from their products.
– Mountainsmith tells me that although the current chemicals are “less toxic” than they used to be, they are still using them on their tents. Interestingly, the REI website doesn’t show a Prop 65 warning for most of the MS tents, so despite some claims I’ve seen by various people trying to track this, the absence of a Prop 65 Warning can NOT be taken as a solid indication that a product is FR-free!
Hard to imagine the companies still aren’t seeing consumer demand yet, since most companies now mine social media for consumer insights and perspectives about their products. The Q&A sections for numerous tents on REI’s and manufacturers’ websites are peppered with questions asking about FR chemicals in the specific product., so clearly some people are starting to care. Are they caring with their dollars yet? Maybe not much – yet – since most of the FR-free products are still really expensive, but TNF FR-free tents are starting to push into the midrange of the outdoor gear market, so I think we’ll start to see a migration.
I’m in the market for two tents right now: I bought a TNF backpacking tent today, and trying to figure out my best options for the new family tent right now. That’s some real dollars that will NOT be flowing to any of several big names I’ve patronized in the past, but haven’t changed their ways. I shudder to think that I’ve spent over a year of my life sleeping in FR-treated tents, often not having washed my hands after setting them up. Two of those soldiers (a TNF and a Sierra) have lived well past 20 years and 100+ nights, so maybe the chemicals will have mostly dissipated? No studies on THAT yet. Would washing with a good detergent remove a significant part of the FR? Maybe if it’s a coating, maybe not if it’s baked into the fabric, but who knows? At this point I’m buying FR-free, because I (just barely) can.
NEMO’s new line of tents made with Osmo fabric are flame retardant free too, I’m working on covering that soon.
Thank you MH. I hope more manufacturers (not just tents) take a hard look at the fabrics they expose people to. There are far too many “old” toxic chemical methods being used in consumer products still today and even with more defined regulations made, it still continues.
Thanks for Stepping up and bringing the issue to the forefront – MH !
I’m so glad mountain headwear made this ethical choice. Another brand that doesn’t use flame retardants is Tent Lab’s Moonlight tent. We have one and love it!
Thank you for doing this, I hope it brings you many sales! I will definitely be looking at me for my next tent purchase, because you did this! You may not know about it, but there are many people searching for affordable tents without fire retardant chemicals on them!
I’m really surprised that companies have had “no consumer demands” for this. Myself, as well as, several hundred people have been begging for the opportunities to go out camping with peace of mind and have all, myself included, have fallen to the side of caution by not purchasing or just not going. So many youth groups, naturalists, parents, etc have waited for a company to FINALLY decide to give up corporate greed and offer products that won’t effectively kill its customers or the environment. I hope other companies follow suit in protecting this planet and its inhabitants…. Starting with the food industry.
Yeh, finally. Thank you! Now can you stop making them in china? That’s unhealthy for many reasons as well.
Great news. I suffer from MCS multiple chemical sensitivity and struggling to find products that are not fire-retardant. I can not find a place to live due to chemicals from a recently done up property so mot likely will have to live in a tent. But have been struggling finding one suitable as me and my friend are part-time wheelchair users. Searching for second-hand ones as more chance they have been used and so the smell is off gassed over time. Well Done MH.