"Emphasized Flame-Retardant Performance"...8 Out of 10 Tents Fail to Meet Standards

Korea Consumer Agency Conducts Safety Inspection on 15 Tent Products

Although more and more tents are being advertised as having flame-retardant performance, many of these products actually have insufficient flame-retardant properties, so caution is required.

The Korea Consumer Agency announced on the 12th that it investigated the safety of 15 tent products advertised as having flame-retardant performance and found that the flame-retardant properties of 13 products did not meet domestic safety standards, and 9 products failed to comply with labeling requirements.

According to domestic safety standards, if a tent is labeled as a flame-retardant product, it must satisfy all five items of the "Flame-Retardant Performance Standards (National Fire Agency Notice No. 2022-29)" (afterflame time, afterglow time, charred area, char length, and number of flame applications).

This tent is unrelated to the article. The Asia Business Daily database

All 15 products surveyed were advertised as having flame-retardant performance. However, test results showed that 86.6% (13 products) failed to meet at least one item of the flame-retardant performance standards, raising concerns that users could be exposed to the risk of burns and fires.

For afterflame time, 86.6% (13 products) exceeded the safety standard by up to 41.7 times. Afterglow time must be 5 seconds or less, but one manufacturer’s product recorded 44.2 seconds, which is 8.8 times longer. As for charred area, 86.6% (13 products) were non-compliant, and some exceeded the safety standard by up to 12.5 times. For char length, 73.3% (11 products) failed to meet the standard. In addition, among the products (13) that melt when exposed to flame, 53.8% (7 products) did not meet the requirement for the number of flame applications (3 times or more).

Manufacturers and importers of tents are required under the safety standards to attach fire-prevention warning labels inside the tent and to comply with requirements such as label size and warning phrases. However, 60.0% (9) of the 15 products surveyed did not meet the safety standards due to missing labeling (3), missing attachment (1), or insufficient label size and warning phrases (5).

Based on the results of this investigation, the Korea Consumer Agency recommended that the relevant businesses improve product quality, revise advertising on sales pages, and improve labeling, and it plans to notify the competent ministries of the safety inspection results for flame-retardant tents.

The Korea Consumer Agency urged, "For safe camping, consumers should refrain as much as possible from using open flames inside tents and in the surrounding area," adding, "When it is unavoidable to use fire, they must pay special attention to fire safety."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.