Proposed Changes to the Canada Tent Regulation SOR/2016-185 Method

One of the main objectives of the CGSB tent committee was to establish a method of testing that would address flammability hazards of current materials and products in the market and eliminate or reduce the use of flame retardants, while still protecting consumers from the risk of tent fires.

Health Canada's Product Safety Laboratory has conducted preliminary testing using a number of common tent materials, with and without FR treatments, to help develop this standard.

The scope of the revised regulation would cover consumer tents and tent trailers while tents intended for indoor use only would be excluded.

This may also impact the current Canadian Toy Regulation, SOR/2011-17, by adding a requirement to the toy regulation for the flammability of play tents that are intended for indoor use only. Some of the considerations are as follows:

• “Instead of referring to these products as "play tents", Health Canada is considering using the term "toys intended to be entered by a child" to align with ISO 8124-2:2014, Safety of toys - Part 2: Flammability and EN 71-2:2011+A1:2014, Safety of toys, Part 2: Flammability. These products are defined in these standards as toys that are made of flexible materials such as fabric and vinyl and that at least partially enclose a child, such as toy tents, puppet theatres, wigwams and play tunnels, but not open canopies.”

• “Options being considered to assess the flammability of these products include:

• the flammability requirements for soft toys in the Toys Regulations; or

• the flammability requirements for toys intended to be entered by a child in ISO 8124-2:2014 and EN 71-2:2011+A1:2014.”

Health Canada is requesting comments by March 23, 2019 for the proposed amendments for the Tent Regulations and Toy Regulations.

More Information:
https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/programs/consultation-amend-tent-regulations/document.html