GB No. 9, autumn 1992
At the beginning of 1991 all cosmetics manufacturers in Poland were officially ordered to reduce the proportion of CFC gases in their products.
Kraków's cosmetics factory "NEL" was established a year ago. Since deodorants happen to be one of its mainline products, the company applied for a patent on its newly developed technology of using a mixture of compressed air and carbon dioxide as a carrier in spray cans with deodorants. "NEL" apparently has not followed the example of a great many western cosmetics manufacturers using the derivatives of propane and butane in their products. The stringent safety requirements in regard to their storage make this technology particularly disadvantageous.
The compressed air and carbon dioxide option seems to be safer both in production and use, on the other hand. Its only drawback so far being a rather inferior degree of substance atomization in comparison with the butane/propane derivatives used as a carrier; the latter creating a mist-like effect as opposed to the droplet-like effect resulting from the use of the former. This is due to the fact, that both air and carbon dioxide still remain in the gaseous state after compression whilst CFCs or propane/butane derivatives are in the liquid state after compression. Hence a certain disadvantage in using the cosmetics made by "NEL".
The contents of an average spray can are made up of ca. 30ml of the compressed carrier mixture and ca. 120ml of a cosmetic substance itself.
There are no fundamental differences in terms of costs in the manufacture of the cosmetics products with the aid of either of the three components, be that CFCs, propane/butane derivatives or carbon dioxide/air mixture. The crucial consideration should therefore be the environmental one.
Natalia Tulecka