What makes an effective pepper spray?

[NickBallard]

It seems like there's a lot of debate out there about what makes a pepper spray effective. Most places agree that depending on the brand of pepper spray and the spray type (stream, cone, fog, foam), pepper spray can be anywhere from 60%-95% effective. These statistics sound scary and that it would be important to get an effective pepper spray if you're a civilian, since civilians don't have the backup that an officer has if the spray doesn’t work. So what makes an effective pepper spray?

I would like to hear what everyone else has heard. There are different things that I've heard myself. From some sources, I've heard that SHUs are the only thing that's related to heat and that Oleoresin Capsicum percentage only determines how fast the effects kick in (since all pepper spray has a short delayed effect) and how long decontamination time is. The lower the OC%, the faster the effects kick in (good if someone has a baseball bat), but the shorter the effects last (so they can escape and find where you ran to before the police arrive). I saw a study submitted to the National Institute of Justice saying that a pepper spray above 5% OC doesn't atomize as easily, because it's an oil, and so it won’t affect the respiratory system as well. Then I've heard from others that SHUs and Oleoresin Capsicum percentage don't matter, but rather the major capcainoids (MC) percentage (active ingredient that are actually in the bottle). They say that SHUs is how hot the base resin is before it's mixed in with the carrier material/propellant that's also in the bottle, and the only true measure of pungency is when it leaves the nozzle, instead of how it is before it's mixed with the propellant. SHUs is just how many parts per million it takes to be diluted. If you take 5.3 million SHUs as base resin and then make it 2% of the total solution, it becomes diluted. I heard that the major capsaicinoids are the actual chemicals that make pepper spray work its magic, not the SHUs of the base resin or percentage of the solution that happens to be hot pepper. This all gets confusing to me. I've heard that pepper spray isn't very well researched nor is regulated like food and chemicals are. Does anyone know the scoop on pepper spray?

 

[bigdog21]

the higher the capsicianoids the more inflammatory effects you have, the not SHU's but the scolville content tells you how much heat the pepper spray has take Fox labs it has 5.3 million Shu at 2% that means the scolville value is 106,000 and its has .67% capsinoids But Sabre Red is 2 million Shu at 10% and thats 200,000 and the spray has 1.33% capsinoids so the Sabre would have a stronger effect then the fox labs. So basically the capsicanoids are what makes the pepper spray do its magic.

 

[Valkman]

since civilians don't have the backup that an officer has if the spray doesn’t work

Many of us "civilians" do carry guns, and pepper spray to me is important as a non-lethal alternative.

On another forum there's a knifemaker who has lots of practice lately hosing crackheads to get them away from his shop (fully ok with the cops, BTW, they even gave him handcuffs!). He's been using pepper foam and says if you get it on the face and in one ear they really go down. I just bought some Mace 10% pepper gel and think this'll be some good stuff if I have to use it.

 

[glockboy40cal]

pepper gel

i do armed security at hip hop clubs in rochester,ny and i use pepper spray every day i am a former army MP and i started to use pepper gel and it works better then the rest for one on one i sprayed one guy and 25 min still on his knees crying time after time it workes and my guys dont get sprayed just the bad guys

 

[hso]

glockboy40cal,

Welcome to THR! Good to have you here, especially with your first hand experience.