I’m Not A Fan Of “Joe Boxer”, But…

In Canada, there’s terror afoot. Young girls, late at night, are just BURSTING into flames! It seems they’ve been buying unapproved underpants, and the bodies are piling up.

Only, they’re not. Nobody to date has burst into flame. And they were approved, but they just got reclassified, and apparently the difference between calling them underwear and sleepwear is enough to pull them off the shelves:

Sears Canada is recalling thousands of young girls’ Joe Boxer underwear sets sold over the past four years because they’re not safe to be worn to bed as pyjamas.

The clothing meets Health Canada’s flammability tests for underwear, but not if worn as sleepwear. Sears Canada has removed the two-piece camisole and underpants sets from their stores. The cotton product is made in India.

Although no incidents have been reported, the company issued a news release to inform customers the clothing does not meet flammability test standards for pyjamas.

When people suggest that businesses are scared to invest in an environment where the rules constantly change, this is what they’re talking about. Getting moved from bin A to bin B can completely destroy your business.

Here’s Lenore Skenazy from Free Range Kids with her take on it:

Somehow, they have been reclassified as “sleepwear,” and sleepwear must hold to a higher non-flammability standard than undies. So now they are not fire retardant enough.

I’ll tell you what IS retardant enough…

So believe it or not, all sleepwear has to meet flammability test standards. From your fluffy pyjama bottoms to that sexy silk nightgown, they are all fire retardant to a certain degree. Hard to believe, but true nonetheless.

I’m not so sure. I don’t think we have enough hard data on the fire retardant properties of the average politician or bureaucrat (the economic retardant properties are well understood).

I suggest we find a representative sample (not sure why, but the number 535 seems an appropriate sample size), light them on fire, and record the results.

It’ll be a win for freedom, and for science!