Son of Aerosol

Is the spray can about to go the way of the giant moa? For the past two years it has seemed so, because evidence has mounted that fluorocarbon, which is used as a propellant in numerous aerosol sprays, is depleting the ozone layer of the earth's atmosphere and increasing worldwide the danger of skin cancer from the sun's radiation. Last week three federal agencies announced a timetable for phasing out fluorocarbons from all "nonessential" uses--including deodorants, hair sprays and perfumes--by the spring of 1979.

Almost simultaneously, though, a potential savior of the spray can appeared: none other than Robert Abplanalp, the Yonkers, N.Y., inventor and friend of Richard Nixon who devised the aerosol spray valve in the first place and made millions on his invention. Abplanalp showed off another invention that he claims to have worked out in six months of scrawling on notepads: a valve trade-named Aquasol that uses a mixture of water and butane gas as a propellant. Besides getting rid of the fluorocarbons, Aquasol has another advantage: the butane propellant is not in solution but floats in pressurized form at the top of the can, so more of the can's space can be filled with deodorant, hair spray or whatever. "The breakthrough is in the valve," says Abplanalp. Aerosol valves have one duct through which the fluorocarbon-product mix passes. Aquasol has two ducts: one for the butane, one for a mixture of water and the product. They meet in a swirl chamber where, says Abplanalp, "the gas kind of explodes."

Actually, fluorocarbons are now used in only about one-third of the spray cans sold in the U.S. But the controversy over their environmental impact has undermined sales of aerosol products of all sorts. Though many companies are looking into replacement for fluorocarbon gas, until now the only alternatives have been highly combustible gases that are unsuited to certain products, including hair sprays. Fluorocarbons, for all their drawbacks, are not combustible; neither is the butane-water mix in the Aquasol system. Anticipating the federal fluorocarbon ban, Gillette and some other manufacturers last year began switching to pump-action containers for their products, but these do not emit the fine, even spray of Abplanalp's aerosol nozzles. If Aquasol passes market tests and proves as popular as aerosol, the nation's medicine cabinets could remain stocked with spray cans a long time into the future.

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