INFLAMMABLE GARMENTS

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29799, 16 April 1962, Page 14

INFLAMMABLE GARMENTS

“Greater Safety With Nylon”

“Nothing could be more designed to give the New Zealand public a completely wrong impression about the wearing of nylon garments by air travellers than the recent pronouncement by the Civil Aviation Administration," said Mr D. H Dickinson, general manager of British Nylon Spinners (New Zealand), Ltd., in a statement.

Mr Dickinson was referring to a warning about the wearing of nylon clothing in aeroplanes issued by the Civil Aviation Administration and printed in “The Press” on April 11. The warning according to the Director of Civil Aviation (Sir Arthur Nevill) had nothing to do with airline passengers and applied only to pilots engaged in certain types of work. Mr Dickinson said that he did not want to question the particular helicopter experience mentioned by the Civil Aviation Administration, but to draw the conclusions quoted would be unnecessarily dangerous and misleading. “Where there are fire hazards. nylon garments offer greater safety than is afforded by many other types of clothing Nylon does not ignite or flare up and the danger of the wearer’s general clothing catching fire is reduced by the greater amount of nylon clothing worn. “The inherent reluctance of nylon to burn is the basic reason why the British Nylon Spinners campaign ‘safer from fire’ for children’s nightwear launched in Britain last year was welcomed generally by the trade, consumer bodies, members of Parliament and mothers everywhere. “On contact with a flame, nylon fabric will melt, but when it recedes from the flame the melting will stop Like hot toffee molten nylon fabric m.ght cause a small local burn a lesser injury compared with the serious risk from fabrics which flare and cause widespread burns,” said Mr Dickinson.