Second Chance Recommends Safety Officers Replace Zylon Vests

Second Chance Body Armor, the Michigan-based manufacturer embroiled in numerous legal battles over its products, is recommending the immediate replacement of any of its bullet-resistant vests containing Zylon fiber.

The announcement came on June 22, in the form of a press release and two safety notices to police departments across the country. According to the statement, new research from one of the nation’s leading polymer chemists has shown that protective vests constructed only partially from Zylon may fail to perform and result in serious injury or death. The safety notices urge all officers who own and wear Tri-Flex vests or Ultima and Ultimax vests with Performance Pacs to replace these vests immediately with products that do not contain Zylon.

The safety notices will affect approximately 58,000 Tri-Flex vests and an additional 40,000 Ultima and Ultimax vests with Performance Pacs.

Second Chance, which is currently going through a reorganization in the bankruptcy court, plans to petition the bankruptcy court for a procedure for police departments and safety officers to present claims that may result from this new info rmation. Additionally, Second Chance has contacted the Bulletproof Vest Partnership Program to request that this federally funded program take immediate action to help with financing replacement vests.

“While Second Chance has not received any reports of field failures of the products in question, we felt it was our obligation to report these new research findings immediately,” said Matt Davis, vice president of sales and marketing. “The safety and well-being of all the officers who wear our body armor is of primary importance to Second Chance and we strongly encourage all officers to replace ballistic vests that contain Zylon as quickly as possible.

“The problems associated with Zylon are not specific to Second Chance – these problems are industry-wide and demand an industry-wide solution. We have approached the National Institute of Justice, which is involved in an ongoing investigation of Zylon-based body armor, with our concerns. Additionally, we are aggressively pursuing litigation against the fiber’s manufacturer, Toyobo Co., Ltd., in an effort to recover funds that can be used to provide a remedy to affected police departments and safety officers.”

Zylon first debuted in the body armor industry in the late 1990s as a lighter and more wearable alternative to aramid fabrics such as Kevlar®. After testing by both Second Chance and Toyobo, Second Chance introduced its first products using Zylon in 1998.

In September 2003, ongoing testing of used vests containing only Zylon showed degradation problems with the fiber that potentially shortened the wearable life of the vest. Second Chance then recalled vests made entirely of Zylon. Products that contained a blend of Zylon and other protective fibers were not implicated in this research and remained on the market.

The recall, which affected more than 130,000 vests, pushed Second Chance into bankruptcy proceedings in October 2004 and prompted numerous lawsuits. Additionally, the National Institute of Justice launched an industry-wide investigation in November 2003 into the vulnerability of Zylon-based bullet-resistant vests.

In the course of this investigation, Second Chance’s legal counsel has retained a leading polymer chemist, formerly of Dow Chemical, to analyze the Zylon fiber used to construct the vests to see if he could identify the cause of premature aging. These test results showed the presence of inordinately high levels of residual process acids – up to eight times the desired level –in the Zylon manufactured by Toyobo. These process acids can lead to a sudden and dramatic loss of tensile strength, even under normal conditions.

This process, which is called “hydrolytic degradation,” potentially reduces the efficacy of the protective nature of the clothing. After reviewing these results with the Department of Justice, Second Chance decided to issue safety notices on its remaining products that contain Zylon.

“In 2003, Second Chance took the lead on the Zylon issue because it was the right thing to do. As new and more detailed info rmation has become available, we are once again taking the lead and speaking out against the use of Zylon in body armor.”

But Chuck Canterbury, National President of the Fraternal Order of Police, expressed skepticism regarding these statements and Second Chance’s intentions.

"Let us be clear," Canterbury said. "This was not a decision driven by a concern about the safety of law enforcement officers--it's about the bottom line of a company in bankruptcy facing numerous law suits from law enforcement agencies and officers."

Canterbury also noted that Second Chance discontinued the manufacture of the Tri Flex vests in April 2004. He also says that the notice just issued regarding the Performance Pac enhancement was deemed by the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) as "unacceptable" under Federal standards in December 2004.

"This is not 'new research' or new info rmation," Canterbury said. "The F.O.P. took our concerns about Zylon to the U.S. Department of Justice in the fall of 2003, which prompted the Department to launch its Body Armor Safety Initiative to analyze the use of this material in soft body armor. Our organization has been cautioning law enforcement agencies and officers about the use of any bullet-resistant vests with Zylon as a component for nearly two years."

"The safety of the individual officer is the F.O.P.'s primary concern," Canterbury said. "We urge any law enforcement agency that uses soft body armor with Zylon as a component to replace them as soon as possible. In the meantime, we would remind all officers of this fact: any soft body armor is better than none at all."

Joseph Estey, president, IACP, echoed these concerns. “Second Chance’s announcement highlights the critical and continuing need for a prompt resolution to this troubling issue. Over the last 18 months, the Department of Justice has launched a comprehensive investigation into the question of body armor degradation and initiated a review of the vest certification and approval process.

“However, the concerns of the law enforcement community remain. Throughout the nation, law enforcement agencies are struggling over how to address the anxiety of their officers and their families over the effectiveness of body armor. Consequently, the IACP believes that the results of this investigation and a definitive statement on the effectiveness of the body armor tested must be issued as soon as practically possible.”