These two both appear to be "Water based" Permethrin concentrates. The Vectorban is 10%, the Riptide is 5% plus Piperonyl butoxide. While it doesn't contain every ingredient the MSDS sheets help. The most hazardous ingredient in these two products appears to be the Permethrin...
Vector-Ban MSDS
RipTide MSDS
Piperonyl Butoxide Wiki
So with plenty of time on my hands I seem to be going through the Permethrin threads....
So the Military has a soak kit (made by several vendors including Sawyer) which all share the same/similar MSDS: Insect Repellent, Clothing Application, Kit
They also have an aerosal spray (made by Sawyer) that is 0.55% Permethrin
Boring Reports such as this: Personal Protective Measures Against Insects and Other Anthropods of Military Significance
My observations:
1. Do not treat Underwear (or Caps)! To quote "(2) Do NOT treat underwear, including undershirts, or physical training uniforms. Although permethrin is poorly absorbed and is rapidly inactivated in mammals (McCain and Leach, 2007; Taplin and Meinking, 1990), wearing untreated undergarments significantly reduces the risk of exposure to fabric impregnants (USAEHA, 1982; USAEHA, 1988a; USAEHA, 1988b)."
2. The Military systems of Permethrin for clothing all contain petroleum distillates. Now the Military wouldn't possibly expose it's soldiers to any dangerous or hazardous materials? Would they?
3. The magic final % of permetherin that seams to make a "lifetime" 50 wash application is 0.52% and apply 32oz of this per long sleeve top and full length pants when applied via a pressure sprayer like the bug and weed sprayers we can buy at HD and Lowes. Lower concentration or less product does not result in the "lifetime" application.
4. The Soak kit dilutes 9ml of 40% Permethrin solution with 450ml of Water.
5. Vinyl coated fabrics are not compatible with Permethrin treatments.
My opinion:
Most of the Permethrin products appear to be safe to use on clothing after looking at MSDS information and research done by the US Military. Even the Sawyer products contain a certain level of Petroleum distillates and have a flashpoint of 115C or above listed. What is important is to dilute any concentrate to a appropriate level for the application method being used.
Overall this is nasty stuff and what we find out in the future may not agree with what is available today. I use Permethrin and have used various brands including Sawyers and Vector-Ban. When wearing treated Clothes I've noticed a lower likelyhood of getting insect bites and when adding a topical repellent (both DEET and Picaridin) had no instances of bites when others next to me were getting "eaten alive".
I have good results with Sawyer Permethrin aerosol.
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