Fftt Comes Back

What is the best way to apply deodorants, hair sprays, bug killers and window cleaners? For a decade after Windex introduced its now familiar bottle back in 1937, some manufacturers found the answer to the multimillion-dollar marketing question in the finger-operated pump, and they packaged a variety of products with reusable squirters. Then, in the postwar years, the Ffft of pump sprays was largely replaced by the ssst of aerosol pressure cans, which were simpler and more convenient. Now, however, pumps are making a comeback. Sales of products equipped with them are rising: at present, pumps account for 10% of an estimated $3 billion market. Some industry officials expect them to double their share by the end of 1976.

The reason for this resurgence is spreading concern about the fluorocarbon gases used as propellants in aerosol cans. A few widely publicized studies, including recent satellite observations, have suggested that these gases could gradually be destroying the ozone layer that shields the earth from a dangerous overdose of ultraviolet rays. Some scientists have scoffed at this doomsday prospect. But several manufacturers, among them such giants as Gillette and Bristol-Myers have been responding to popular doubts about aerosols by adding spray-pump containers to their product lines.

Aerosols are better than spray pumps for many jobs, notably those requiring a fine mist. ("Would you want to Windex your hair?" asks one industry spokesman.) On the other hand, pumps give the customer more for the money. An 8-oz. pump bottle of a leading hair spray costs a nickel more than a 13-oz. aerosol can of the same product. But it delivers more spray; anywhere from 10% to 90% of the content of an aerosol can is propellant.

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