Talk:Fire retardant

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[edit] Merge suggested

I would suggest to merge the articles flame retardant and fire retardant as these terms are very similar. --Lucido 13:06, 21 January 2007 (UTC)

I would not merge: www.dictionary.com defines these two terms as fire retardant: able to slow or check the spread of destructive fire. flame retardant: a compound used in cloth and plastic material to raise the ignition point of the material, thus making it resistant to fire. Rick1957 13:49, 21 January 2007 (UTC)

I know that it is not exactly the same. But sometimes it is not so clear, whether it is a fire retardant or a flame retardant. In the section Chemical action e.g., the term "flame retardant(s)" is used twice. --Lucido 16:16, 21 January 2007 (UTC)

Flame retardent is generally used(losely interchangeable) to describe clothing that has been treated to resist fire. Fire retardent is usually used (at least were I am) to describe retardent that is used to to treat building material and foliage in a wildland environment.

I can see were you are comming from. I genarlly use the words flame retardent to describe a chemical that is designed to prevent ignition of a material for a short time or at least not support combustion when removed fromt the heat source. I use fire retardent when talking about something that will stand up to all hazards of a fire. Such as the fire retardent insulation in buildings, it insulates the steel beams from the heat and does not support combustion. All in all I think they sould be 2 diffrent pages. NordicFire 24:18, 17 June 2007 (UTC)

• Oppose merge they are different substances with different purposes. One is designed to be applied ahead of time to prevent burning, while the other is designed to be applied to a fire to suppress burning. AKRadecki^Speaketh 19:58, 22 August 2007 (UTC)