Flammability of Pepper Spray

[das_mervin]

Hello. My writing partner and I have hit a bit of a snag in a story that we are writing because of one little detail

Comments

[twoseamfastball]

Where in the US? The legality will vary state to state.

[das_mervin]

State! *slaps forehead* Sorry--it's Washington State.

[twoseamfastball]

There ya go.

[twoseamfastball]

I should add that, so far as I know, the best pepper sprays use non-flammable propellants and are specifically recommended for this very reasons. Many of the less reputable ones use butane or something similar as a propellant, which would create your flamethrower, but if this is being given to your character by a chief of police, he would presumably give her a non-flammable version.

[michelel72]

I played with Google for a bit, including the term propellant, and eventually found sites that voiced a preference for Vexor over Cap-Stun because the former is far less flammable. The latter is formulated to be non-flammable in normal use; some of the sites said that Cap-Stun was more effective but could not be used with a Taser because of the flammability risk. So I'd suggest further research into Cap-Stun and flammability. Good luck!

[das_mervin]

Thank you very much for the suggestion of CAPSTUN--we've found some very helpful sites.

[duckodeath]

If her father is law enforcement, he can get any kind of pepper spray stuff regardless of whether it is legal for a civilian to own it. I believe most cops carry some as part of their normal equipment.

Whether you can use it is a flame thrower is another matter entirely. All the stuff I've seen advertised in an intensive two minute Google search (so, you know, not very intense) for pepper spray ingredients suggests it is not flammable and being non-toxic and non-flammable is one of the selling points of the product. The impromptu flamethrowers I've always seen are either bug spray or hair spray.

[das_mervin]

Yeah, we discovered it's legal for his daughter to carry it so long as she has his permission.

We'd intended to use something like that if the pepper spray turns out to be impossible--but we'd really like it to be the pepper spray. That would work so well for the story. Thank you for your help, though! Everyone's answers have really helped us find a solution.

[genre_savvy]

Water-based pepper spray is not flammable. Oil-based is. You'd have to check the ingredients of a specific brand to see which base it used.

Remember the case where some guy was sprayed and then tased by police and burst into flames? Yeah, that's the reason that the police are supposed to use water-based pepper spray now. I assume that this applies to all states, but I don't know for sure. I'm not sure if civilians can still get oil-based, but they probably could in 2005.

[das_mervin]

Yeah, we found a site talking about oil-based pepper spray and certain kinds that are not to be used with tasers--and have read up on the cases where the guy turned into the human torch. We also found that while police are required to use water-based, civilians still appear to be able to get oil-based so long as they don't own them in conjunction with an electrical stun gun or taser or anything like that.

Thanks for your help!

[americanleaguer]

If it's a police officer giving it to her, it will be non-flammable. If it was just Joe Q Civilian giving it to her, it might be plausible to have him not know about the flammability issue, but a police officer, and especially a police chief, will know, and will definitely not give his daughter anything that could fuck her over legally if she used it on some guy who happened to be smoking a cigarette at the time or something.