By: Richard Armen
Submitted: 2009-11-22 05:51:44 | Word Count: 497
Pepper spray is an excellent choice for self defense, no matter who you are. It is inexpensive, effective, and legal to carry. Though it s an easy to use product, there are some interesting facts that you may not know about the defense spray you re carrying. Here are a few surprising facts:
The inspiration for pepper spray dates back thousands of years. Though in its current form is certainly a modern invention, in ancient times, bags filled with pepper and spices were commonly thrown at enemies, especially in Asia. In fact, throwing ground peppers in the face of criminals was a common practice in ancient Japan, where the practice was actually used as a form of punishment.
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Pepper spray can be used against animals, too. There are specially formulated and larger sized sprays that can be used specifically against bears, mountain lions, dogs, and nearly any other animal that may be attacking you. In fact, all U.S. Postal Service carriers have spray to use as protection against dog attacks. This versatile spray is useful against both human and animal attacks.
It is a lot hotter than peppers. The hotness of both rated in SHUs, or Scoville Heat Units. The typical bell pepper rates close to zero on this scale. A jalapeno pepper is about 5000 SHU, and a habanero about 300,000. Typical sprays rate at about 2 million SHU, and some even approach 3 million SHU. In other words, they pack quite a powerful punch, incomparable to peppers in their natural form, when it comes to their burning effect.
The effects last nearly half an hour. If you ve never seen anyone get sprayed in the face with it, you ll be surprised at how fast they go down and how long they stay down. The effects are nearly immediate, and a good blast will immobilize anyone for about 15 to 30 minutes.
Pepper spray can be disguised. If you don t like the idea of carrying a spray canister everywhere with you, why not pick a spray pen instead? The canisters come disguised as almost anything, including a pen or cell phone, to make you more comfortable carrying them.
Pepper spray can help catch the perpetrator. Pepper spray isn t just for scaring criminals away or making them stop their attack. Today, many sprays include invisible UV dye. Your attacker won t know he s marked until he s caught and the police put him under a blacklight. Then, the effects of the dye will become readily apparent. This is a very useful tool in making a positive identification.
Pepper spray is not tear gas. They often get grouped together, but they re not the same thing. Although early forms of pepper spray, particularly the Mace brand name, did contain the same chemicals as tear gas, today they are completely different products formulated for different uses. Tear gas is formulated for crowd control type uses, while pepper spray is designed to be effective against one person or a small group.
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