Safariland, a BAE Systems line of business, has announced the introduction of the updated Defense Technology line of its aerosol products. The updated products include a change to a more consistent measurement of the irritant, color-banded packaging, and revised formulations.  

The Defense Technology First Defense brand of aerosols now measures the intensity of its products using Major Capsaicinoid (MC%) instead of Scoville heat units.  Major Capsaicinoid is a more scientifically valued scale and provides an improved method to replicate the level of intensity for the products.

"Aerosol brands typically use Scoville heat units to measure the level of irritant in their aerosols," says Jim Morgan, category manager for less lethal at Safariland. "However, Scoville heat units are a very subjective measurement based on a taste test, which is actually used by the American Association of Spice Traders to determine the intensity of a food grade product. The Major Capsaicinoid (MC%) measurement provides information on the amount of active agent in the solution, allowing us to consistently reproduce the exact same OC formulation."

The Defense Technology brand of aerosols range in intensity from the classic First Defense (.2%) spray to the LE-10, the most intense OC spray on the market (1.3%). To better assist agencies and consumers in determining the best product selection for their needs, the color-banded system was developed for easy identification of the MC% level of the various formulas. 

Updates were also made to various formulations for clarity of use by consumers. 

• Pepper Mace is now represented as the orange band .7% formulation.

• The LE-10 is now the red and blue band 1.3% formulation, offering the highest level of irritant on the market, for extreme situations such as crowd management.

• The new OC/CS grey band formulation combines the inflammatory nature of OC and the irritant properties of CS.

A new 2-ounce canister has been introduced, which will fit the smaller canister holders that some agencies require. Further, spray patterns have been extended to a cone pattern in the X2 level (.4%). The new color-banded aerosols range in suggested price from $10.50 to $82.80 and are now available for order.