Aerosol

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An aerosol is a suspension of tiny solid particles or liquid droplets in a gas.

Dangerous aerosols in industry[edit]

Some solids, suspended in air, can be dangerously explosive. Suspended coal dust in mines, or suspended flour or grain dust, in flour mills and grain elevators, can be dangerously explosive.^[2][1]

Consumer products delivered as aerosols[edit]

Some modern consumer products, like paint, hair-spray, whipping cream, or penetrating lubricants, are applied as aersols. Products delivered as aerosols are typically distributed in pressurized cans, where the liquid to be delivered is pressurized by a gas called a "propellant". Air is rarely used as a propellant. Nitrous Oxide (laughing gas) is used as a propellant for edible products, like whipping cream. Some other products use light hydrocarbon gases, like butane or propane, which can pose a fire risk. In the late twentieth century chlorinated fluorocarbans were a commonly used propellant; but they are no longer used because it was found the expelled propellant was very damaging to the atmosphere's ozone layer.^[3]

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