Written on: October 1, 2024 by Patrick Heskins
The staff at the British Aerosol Manufacturers’ Association (BAMA) is terrible at throwing anything away. In a recent “tidy up,” we generated 15 sacks of wastepaper, which were sent away to be shredded and recycled. However, before we did this, everything was packed up, sent to be scanned and stored on our ever-expanding cloud drive archive.
One of the dangers of having an extensive archive is that sometimes you go off to find one piece of information to answer a question and then get drawn in, spending long hours reading back through old discussions, comparing filling stats from years gone by, finding pictures of people you knew—and still know—and then sniggering at how they have changed while you are still as handsome, vital and debonair as you were 25 years ago.
However, what is odd (or maybe isn’t) is that many of the issues we faced back in the day, we still continue to face today. Take, for example, this discussion in the BAMA Annual Report from 1963 on hairspray and the potential risks of inhalation of hairspray resins:
Given that the products we make, whether from a pressurized aerosol can, trigger or pump dispenser, go up into the air around us as they are used, it is not a surprise that researchers and regulators are as concerned about the potentially detrimental effects from inhalation today as they were back in 1963.
Measuring VOCs today
Today, analytical techniques have become significantly more accurate and, probably more importantly from a research perspective, portable. BAMA is involved with one such study and part of its work involves traveling around to different cities measuring volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions using a mass spectrometer (in the back of a van) that is sampling the air around it. BAMA can then map the level of VOCs as it travels along the high street or in industrial areas.
It probably won’t come as a surprise that the mass spectrometer sees higher levels of VOCs when passing hair salons and nail bars, and there are also spikes in the industrial areas traveled through. The study is also finding spikes when traveling past restaurants and takeaways as a combination of gas stoves, cooking oil and the frying of various ingredients releases a whole variety of materials into the local atmosphere. The study is also making similar measurements in the home.
The question is: what is the danger to public health from being exposed to these materials? As an industry, we make detailed health assessments of the products we place on the market. There are constant changes to regulations that require the reduction or elimination of ingredients as new scientific data becomes available. The 1963 formulation of a hairspray, for example, is very different to those on the market in 2024.
We must never lose sight of the need to reassure consumers that the products we produce are as safe as they can possibly be, based on the best possible scientific information. Should consumers ever lose confidence in our products, this would have a far more detrimental effect on the industry than anything any regulator could ever do. SPRAY
