Huffing in general, or this product in particular? Hell if I know. (Either way.) I do think there is more in canned air than just air. I vaguely recall using some years ago having a somewhat propane-like smell.
Posts: 29067 | Location: Johnson City, TN | Registered: April 28, 2012
Originally posted by egregore: I do think there is more in canned air than just air. I vaguely recall using some years ago having a somewhat propane-like smell.
If you tried to do a just-air canned air in one of the typical air duster cans, you'd only get a few sprays before it ran out. The can can't hold enough pressure to contain a significant amount of air and certainly can't hold enough pressure to contain liquid air.
They use a mixture of chemicals that can be compressed to a liquid state at a relatively low pressure that the can can contain.
The rule of thumb is that a liquid to ambient pressure gas state change increases the volume by a factor on the order of 1000.
This is also why the cans get cold when you use them - as you spray, some of the gas in the can leaves, dropping the pressure in the can, so some of the liquid in the can boils off into gas to return the contents to equilibrium. As the liquid turns into gas in the can, it absorbs heat (exactly like the evaporator coil in an air conditioner).
To do a just-air can, you'd need a much beefier (more expensive) can.
There are fairly effective electric alternatives like the Canless Air X3 Hurricane.
Posts: 6320 | Location: CA | Registered: January 24, 2011
I was looking at computer cartridges and a young gal to my left took a can, popped the lid, opened her pie hole and hit the deck immediately. Scared the hell out of me. I spotted an employee and told her someone was passed out in the computer ink aisle. I’ve never seen anything like that.
Yeah, must be some strong propellent.
Posts: 5775 | Location: west 'by god' virginia | Registered: May 30, 2009
They're huffing the propellant, usually some type of ethane gas.
Like many chemicals, these can be huffed to produce a short-lived euphoric effect due to hypoxia.
But forcibly inducing hypoxia causes brain damage, as brain cells rapidly die due to lack of oxygen. (Just like other forms of oxygen deprivation, like drowning.) Huffers are literally killing chunks of their brain matter every time they huff, permanently trading their cognitive ability for short highs.
All sorts of stuff, not just propellants, can be huffed. Also commonly abused are gasoline, glues, paint, solvent cleaners, and freon and other refrigerants.
Last time I went to buy compressed air at Wally World, the clerk said they had had to lock it up because some tweaker took a can into the restroom, huffed it, passed out and fell on the floor cracking his head open. Then his parents sued Walmart!
Originally posted by dewhorse: um....tweakers gonna tweak
Yep. 4 or 5 neighborhood kids... grade school age... were huffing gasoline fumes out of the gas tank on a lawnmower. They were caught when someone noticed one of them in the yard acting like he falling down was drunk.
A kid from my neighborhood growing up is one if the reasons that stuff gets locked up, age restricted etc. He died huffing Glade I think in the mid 90s at like 15yrs old.
They've been adding the bitterant for several years. If you are not careful and spray for too long or at an angle, it will "spit" the bitterant out as well as the air, and can flat ruin a good LCD screen's coating.
I ran across one off-label use when I broke off a tap once. You hold the can upside down and spray the broken tap, which freezes it and allows you to break it into small pieces with a punch or cold chisel.
When in doubt, mumble
Posts: 10887 | Location: South Congress AZ | Registered: May 27, 2006
There was one of those Intervention (tv show) episodes with a girl that was addicted to inhaling the canned dust remover from office depot. She inhaled like 6 entire cans per day, it was absolutely shocking, her behavior after inhaling that stuff. She went to like full blown monster in 10 seconds.
Originally posted by bendable: would it be a good "bad guy " repellent ?
Definitely not.
The gas in air duster has no effect if simply sprayed on/towards someone, otherwise people wouldn't be able to safely use it by spraying it on their keyboards and other electronics during routine cleaning.
(I mean, you'd have slightly better luck with blowing an air horn towards them, which is a similar spray can of compressed gas, and that at least would have some slight deafening/disorienting effect from the horn... But even that would be like #1432 down on my list of preferred defensive choices, somewhere below "hitting them with a flip-flop" but above "blowing a rape whistle and praying someone else comes to save me". )
You have to directly inhale a decent quantity of the concentrated gas to get the hypoxia "huffing" effect, by displacing a majority of the oxygen in your lungs.
The only other safety concern is that if you hold the can upside down and discharge it, air duster can sometimes come out partially as a supercooled semi-liquid that can cause skin irritation and minor frostbite if enough of it contacts the skin at close enough distance (basically touching the nozzle). But again, that's just a small spot of minor pain from skin irritation, without any sort of realistic defensive effect.
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