Inherent” and “treated” are arguably the most overused and misleading terms in the FR world. These terms were imported into the FR world more than 40 years ago, and accurately reflected the FR durability of technology at the time. However, like most technologies, enormous advances have been made in the decades since then; the first “treated” product that was FR for the life of the garment was introduced in 1987.
Thus the terms “inherent” and “treated,” as commonly understood, ceased to be a relevant differentiator among FR fabrics more than 25 years ago. As such, there are at least four notable problems with these labels: