Over at Gristmill, blogger JMG takes up my quixotic challenge to rid the world of compressed-chemical dusters. They’re basically greenhouse gas atom-bombs—which I described in a pair of posts here and here—and they should be banned immediately.
As far as I know, there’s no government action to outlaw the little bastards, but I do think there’s hope. In fact, this is a perfect time for the private sector to take the lead. Now if only there were some large-volume progressive-minded retailer looking to burnish its green credentials… Maybe a big wholesaler headquartered in the Northwest… like in the Seattle suburbs…
(Cough, Costco, cough.)
Did you say Costco? Hey, great idea!
Now, I’d rather have them banned outright, but incremental steps are welcome too. One good step would be for Costco to simply stop purchasing cannisters with HFC-134a, substituting cannisters with HFC-152a, which does exactly the same thing with about one-tenth the climate impact. Another good step would be to stop using HFC cannisters and instead sell CO-2 cannisters, which are drastically less harmful. A purchasing decision by an outlet as big as Costco can have a meaningful impact all the way back up the supply chain.
And then Costco should do a little trumpeting of it’s actions: make a big deal about banning the greenhouse gas bombs. That would have the effect of both raising consumer awareness and raising the bar for competitors.
If you want to contact Costco, the info is at the end of JMG’s post. But please be nice about it, fergoshsakes. Retailers are almost certainly unaware of the cannisters’ greenhouse gas contents.
Bill Houck
I’d be happy to talk with you more about propellants/refrigerants like 152a and 134a…we use them here to make many products, including air dusters. There is a lot going on with developments if you ever want to communicate. Take care!
Falcon Safety Products
As the leading manufacturer of compressed gas dusters, Falcon Safety Products has been aggressively promoting the use of HFC 152a as its primary choice propellant in dusters for the last 15 years. HFC 152a has 1/10th the global warming potential (GWP) of HFC134a, which has historically been used in dusters. Our company chose this gas because we believe strongly in the environmental benefit of this lower GWP compound. Because of our company’s action, the majority of dusters sold in the US use this much lower GWP propellant. However, HFC 134a still has uses, where flammability is a key concern.Falcon has looked at other gases for its formulations and conducted extensive tests with various of them. Carbon Dioxide was tested. The results showed that it would take about 18 canisters of CO2 to have the same cleaning effect of one can of HFC 152a. CO2, because of its very high pressure needs heavy duty steel cans. The environmental impact of these cans through the supply chain makes CO2 much less environmentally friendly.As far as Costco is concerned, your post is misinformed. They have been selling only HFC 152a dusters for the last 7-8 years and should be applauded for their early decision to do so. Think of all the emissions that their decision has prevented to date. In the near future, there may be new compounds, with very low global warming potentials, that will most likely be safe and effective for dusters. As a company, Falcon has committed to changing our formulations as soon as these compounds become commercially viable.
Eric de Place
Interesting comments here—thanks! I’m interested in talking with each of your further. My email address is eric -at- sightline-dot-org.