How STRONG is Your Pepper Spray, Really?
- Not enough strength and you may not effectively stop an attacker
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Too much punch and you could cause permanent injury
How can you tell if the spray you’re getting be effective when you need it most?
The answer...
Look for sprays that list Major Capsaicinoid percentages or MC rated sprays.
What are Major Capsaicinoids and why should you buy MC rated spray?
Major Capsaicinoids (or MCs) are the only true, laboratory tested, third-party verified measurement of pepper spray effectiveness.
Major Capsaicinoids (MC) are the chemical, lab-measured components of peppers that make them hot. A third-party laboratory performs very accurate testing for evaluating hotness.
MC percentages allow for apples-to-apples comparison of how effective any one pepper spray is. You don’t want to find out you’ve been sold a watered down self defense spray in a moment of danger. Yet many manufacturers opt-out of this essential safety and effectiveness verification to make a cheaper spray.
Don’t be fooled by higher OC (Oleoresin Capsicum) or SHU (Scoville Heat Unit) ratings. They have very little to do with the final pepper spray end product. Both SHU and OC only measure the hotness or volume of the raw product ADDED to the pepper spray canister and very little to do with the final “hotness” of a spray.
Not only are OC and SHU ratings quite confusing for consumers that require additional math to determine a sprays actually “hotness”, but OC and SHU don’t even require third-party lab confirmation. This gives manufacturers who exclusively use these measurement numbers a lot of leeway to overstate or hide the true heat of their final product.
Improving the Way You Buy Pepper Spray
MC percentages may seem small but the FDA has said that a 2% MC can cause permanent eye damage.
An effective pepper spray formula with 1.2% to 1.4% MCs swells the mucous membranes, which makes breathing difficult, and swells the veins in the eyes, causing the eyes to slam shut. Effects last up to 45 minutes and cause no permanent damage.
You just need to focus on high tailing it out of there to safety!
Get the time you need to escape to safety with a Major Capsaicinoids (MC) lab-confirmed hotness without the potential liability of permanent bodily harm. Make sure the pepper spray you buy is MC rated.