Hairspray: It’s not just a Bad Movie

By Kareem Shamroukh

When the word “Hairspray” is brought up, what do you think of? The first thing that probably comes to mind is the aerosol used to protect your hair from humidity and wind. While it may protect YOU, it definitely does the opposite to our world.
Now while most ozone depleting chemicals, chlorofluorocarbons(CFCs), have been phased out of aerosols with the Montreal protocol, there replacement, various propellants, contain hydrocarbons and compressed gases notorious for their contribution to global warming. Even newer, CFC-Free aerosols contain Volatile Organic Compounds(VOCs) that add to "ground-level ozone levels, a key component of asthma-inducing smog."(Scientific American)
But, There can be something done to prevent this problem. I mentioned the Montreal Protocol earlier, and how it banned CFCs from aerosols to help prevent ozone depletion. Well now, 30 years after the signing of the treaty, our ozone is benefiting greatly from that decision. If we were able to replicate that treaty, we would be able to place a ban on the hydrocarbons and the VOCs in those spray cans. If we were able to do it once, why couldn't we do it again.

Do you think it would be possible to replicate the phasing out of CFCs with VOCs?
How do you think we could get every country to agree on this type of change?
Is there any other solutions that could help reduce the risk of global warming due to spray cans?

Sources:
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/are-aerosols-still-bad/

https://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/04/130416-ozone-layer-aerosol-environment-science-montreal-protocol/

Comments

Anonymous said…
I think that the Montreal protocol is an amazing thing because it is very uncommon to get everyone to agree. We may be able to replicate this if we emphasize the fact that we share this earth and we all need to pitch in and work together if we want to save our earth. I think that something like hairspray is not worth hurting our environment so much because it does not benefit us more than merely holding a few stray hairs in place. A way we could try to stop the use of there aerosauls is to get leaders in fashion, like celebrities, to go no hairspray and be openly against the use of hairspray in order to make it less desirable to even use it in the first place.
April 5, 2019 at 10:24 AM
Anonymous said…
The implementation of laws regarding the ingredients of aerosol cans would greatly contribute to the preservation of our ozone layer. This is an ideal situation, however it is unlikely that every country would agree to the banning of this product. Although hairspray isn’t as popular as it was in the 80’s, it still contributes to the emission of green house gases. In order to eradicate this product, someone has to create a new product that achieves the same thing as hairspray but in a safer way. This would allow hairspray to continue to decrease in popularity and eventually go out of the market. Additionally, although hairspray is contributin to greenhouse gases, we should focus on some of the major contributes of emmisions before addressing hairspray. Factories and automobiles should be revised toward a greener approach before we focus all our attention on minor contributers.
April 5, 2019 at 10:38 AM
Anonymous said…
I agree with Lauren in the fact that we could be able to replicate something like the Montreal protocol. This pros of stopping the production of hair sprays out weigh the cons. It’s not worth hurting the environment to make sure your hair looks great. We live on earth and protecting it is important. Continuing to make a product that hurts the environment and does nothing to help it makes no sense to me. I think all nations could get on board with this idea and make a positive change to help our planet.
April 5, 2019 at 10:42 AM
Anonymous said…
I think that the phasing out of VOC’s can be as easy as the phasing out of the CFC’s. However, the problem is not phasing out these harmful material. The problem is finding an alternative that is not harmful to the environment or humans. I think developed regions would be able to put a plan together to reduce our reliance on utilizing VOC’s, but developing regions may not be able to agree to this as they do not have the infrastructure or means to enforce these regulations. I think while aerosols are a major contributor to global warming, we need to focus on other sources of greenhouse gasses. Reducing carbon emissions from vehicles can reduce nitrous oxide coming out. In addition, reducing deforestation rates will reduce CO2 and help save carbon on Earth.
April 5, 2019 at 12:39 PM
Anonymous said…
I must agree with Jacob and Lauren in that the Montreal Protocol did in fact did do something astonishing worldwide, agree on fazing out aerosols products with CFC’s. Now of course I understand how important hairsprays are to many people on a daily basis don’t get me wrong but what Kareem brought up was true, in that it only protects us while making the Earth more uninhabitable. So then nations should make another agreement to get rid of aerosols in general because even though they’re so great for many reasons, it’s not worth it if the planet is the one dying as a result.
April 5, 2019 at 3:41 PM
Anonymous said…
I’ve never really considered that aerosols that I use on a regular basis could have an impact on the atmosphere. It seems so little, but when you think of all the people who use them, its true that a significant amount ends up filling the air. People aren’t going to stop using these products because they’ve become so normalized and necessary to so many cultures, but there is always room for improvement. Considering how well the Montreal Protocal worked, I believe it’s possible to add more regulations to the ingredients of these sprays. Thorough testing should be done on these products before being released to insure that we don’t create any new problems with seemingly green alternatives.
April 7, 2019 at 9:05 AM
Anonymous said…
I think we are well under way to phasing out the use of products that contain Voc's. I think the Montreal protocol was a major hurdle that was crossed. It showed that countries will work together in order to better improve the environment, which could possibly set up further actions. I think that companies should start to advertise or create alternative's to aerosol products such as hairspray. If countries see a decrease in the amount of people using aerosols, it will be much easier for them to ban all together. I don't think that the benefits that aerosols provide necessarily outweigh the environmental damage they cause, which is why we should move toward ending the use of them.
April 7, 2019 at 9:48 PM
Anonymous said…
There's many alternate products people can put on their head other than hair spray. I feel like making hair spray from natural ingredients only is something that can be done. It would probably just be a little bit more expensive, but buying those is the least we can do for our environment. Besides, hairspray isn’t a necessity in life. The Montreal Protocol truly showed the world that if everyone joins hands then crisises can be diverted and prevented together. Hairspray can definetely be altered to not have these harmful chemicals. It's just a matter that depends on money and faith.
April 8, 2019 at 6:15 AM
Anonymous said…
Hairspray has always been my least favorite beauty application due to how uncomfortable it makes my scalp feel. However, many people use hairspray in their everyday life which will help deplete the ozone faster than it currently is. Like Afreen has mentioned, there are other products that people can use on their hair rather than the chemically induced bath bomb of hairspray. Regulations need to be put on their ingredients, and once a solid working bill is passed, we can share our knowledge with other countries to encourage them to implement similar laws.
April 8, 2019 at 8:11 AM
Anonymous said…
Definitely think there are better alternatives to use other than hairspray, there should be stricter restrictions on what can be put into haircare products. I truly don’t know if the world will see another Montreal prodocall in our life time, we as a people have yet to master the act of playing nice. But if the world did come together to fight the har we have brought to our planet we could easily create alternative products that would reduce the air, water, and ground pollution. We need another Montreal to ensure that the effort we use will truly have an impact.
April 8, 2019 at 8:50 AM
Anonymous said…
I think hairspray is not necessary for life and if it comes to a point I think we must find an alternative method in creating hairsprays without the release of VOC’s. The Montreal protocol was a great initiative but I don’t know if it can be replicated without our current political environment. I think of there are laws to control and maybe ban these chemicals released we would be forced to find an alternative. I personally didn’t know such an ordinary substance can have this kind of impact.
April 8, 2019 at 11:11 AM
Anonymous said…
In the very few times that I have ever thought of hairspray, I’ve always seen it as this nonessential hair product. Hairspray seems to have this really interesting background. It was really popular in the 80’s, which explains a lot. To me I almost think that hairspray should have just stayed in the 80’s. These little cans cause a lot more environmental damage than they should. Hairspray isn’t that important of a hair product so there should not have to be a big debate on regulating the chemicals they are allowed to use.
April 8, 2019 at 11:12 AM
Anonymous said…
I believe it is possible to replicate the phasing out of CFCs with VOCs. The materials in the hairspray does negatively affect our environment but so does the cans it come in. As for other countries, we can convince them by telling them how much harm CFCs and aerosols are doing to our planet and environment but also show them the results benefiting for our ozone. Also, instead of hairspray, there are other hair beauty products we can use that’s can be less harmful to our world. Or, we can just leave our hair to be in its beautiful natural form.
April 8, 2019 at 11:18 AM
Anonymous said…
The fact that I did not consider that hairsprays could negatively affect the environment until I read this post proves that there would be significant other people who also does not understand or acknowledge the result of using hairsprays. I personally don’t use any hairsprays, but I’m sure there are a lot of people who use the spray. Like the solution provided above, I think it would be a great idea for us to start employing laws and rules regarding aerosol cans. It is definitely something that could damage our environment. Although it would be harsh to bring a sudden change to the society, I think by doing this we could significantly change our Earth’s environment in the future.
April 8, 2019 at 11:33 AM
Anonymous said…
Although I don’t believe that we can get every country on board with replacing CFC’s with VOC’s, I do believe that we can get major countries with large populations on board. This will greatly impact the amount of air pollution we produce thus maximizing how much time we spend on negotiating the treaty to the amount of people it affects. Another solution to help reduce hairspray pollution is to simply limit the amount of hairspray production. There are alternatives to hairspray, thus by putting quotas on imported hairspray, we can reduce the production and selling of it.
April 8, 2019 at 11:35 AM
Anonymous said…
I do believe that we can definitely replicate something like the Montreal protocol. Hairspray should definitely not be the thing that ends our ozone, and at the end of the day, endanger our health. As Ryan said, there are alternatives to hairspray and I think many countries would be on board to ban these harmful chemicals in our hairspray if we stress the importance and urgency of this situation. Nations would definitely consider getting rid of these chemicals if they knew how harmful they are to our environment and people in general.
April 9, 2019 at 6:49 AM
Anonymous said…
I agree with Lauren that the Montreal Protocol was a great cause that all the nations agreed on, but I also think that this is very rare. VOC's are very common in daily life and people rely on them. They also make a lot of money for certain companies. I think that limiting them would be more difficult now, especially considering current leaders. Today, leaders deny facts on climate change and care more about money and convenience than the environment. Hopefully one day, all countries can come together and limit use of VOC's.
April 9, 2019 at 4:12 PM
Amogh Gokhale said…
I think that the Montreal protocol was astonishing for its time, as most worldwide politicians have trouble agreeing on these types of things. However, it seems unlikely to happen on that scale again. I believe that the only option, other than banning them outright, would be to find an alternative that not only is eco-friendly, but is also safe for human use.
The only obstacles to this are large companies that make money off of their products, such as hairspray and aerosol containers.
April 10, 2019 at 4:42 PM
Anonymous said…
We do not even think when we do a small spritz of deodorant, hair spray, or shaving cream. The process is convenient and seemingly harmless, but the hole in the ozone layer begs to differ. Convenience should not be at the sake of the environment’s health. Even though the ozone layer is now recovering, we still have to take action regarding the use of fossil fuels.
April 11, 2019 at 8:20 AM
Anonymous said…
I think that the phasing out of VOC’s in the same way that we did it with CFC’s will not be easy because getting people not to use them is too hard to enforce. However, I think if we can find a viable option to use as an alternative, people would be more willing to stop their use of these harmful products. It is not worth the harm to the environment for people to continue using these non-essential products but they fact of the matter is that most people don’t care if it is not convenient for them. While Montreal Protocol was extremely beneficial and it would be fantastic if we could try to replicate something of that caliber, i think the better route to take would be offering eco-friendly alternatives.
April 11, 2019 at 10:08 AM
Anonymous said…
No matter how much we try, I really feel that we cannot completely eradicate the abundance of CFC’s and VOC’s in our atmosphere. Things we need to use everyday, such as refrigeration and air conditioning is something we cannot live without and will always emit these compounds. Because it is going to be inevitable to completely get rid of these pollutants, we can reduce them by finding alternatives to things like hairspray by using different materials. I think to get other countries on board we need to increase educating the public about the effects of CFC’s and VOC’s on our atmosphere and make it clear that we cannot go without recognizing the harmful effects of these pollutants. Many individuals don’t even know what a CFC is, clearly showing how little of the public actually knows about this issue.
April 11, 2019 at 6:11 PM
Anonymous said…
The Montreal Protocol is unique in which every country agreed to phase out CFC's. While this is great, other compounds have taken its place as being dangerous to the atmosphere. We need something similar to the Montreal Protocol where many countries come together and agree to ban these dangerous chemicals. Although difficult, it is definitely possible to achieve this and very crucial. It may take until other countries see the devastating effects on their own land before action is taken, so we need to spread awareness about this issue before it is too late. In addition, awareness needs to be spread to individuals for them to stop using items such as aerosols that emit VOCs.
April 11, 2019 at 6:31 PM
Anonymous said…
Now that we’ve learned about chlorofluorocarbons and the impact of the compound on the depletion of the ozone layer, I’ve started to think more about the products I use, even the air conditioning and refrigerators. Although I can’t do much about those, I can definitely stop using products like hairspray that contain chlorofluorocarbons. Now that I know that even one chlorine atom can destroy thousands of ozone molecules, I know that stopping the use of hairspray just by one person can make a big difference. If we can all stop using aerosols that contain chlorofluorocarbons, we can easily reduce the impact we have on the depletion of the ozone layer.
April 11, 2019 at 8:04 PM
Anonymous said…
Learning about CFC’s, or chlorofluorocarbons, really changed my view on this topic. Before, I only knew about the concepts of global warming and climate change. I had no idea that ozone depletion was even a thing. However, I believe that we can fix our mistakes through different regulations for products such as harispray, that contain ozone depleting chemicals. I think that there is definitely a way out there where we can make products similar to hairspray, or that have the same effect, but without being harmful to our environment. I personally don’t use hairspray, but I will be sure to spread awareness to others in my household. I feel like people will listen if we tell them about the effect that ozone depletion has on the rates of sunburns and skin cancer, and how it negatively affects the human populations.
April 12, 2019 at 11:11 AM
Anonymous said…
As there isn't any big need for aerosol, I'm in favor of banning it completely, at least on the average consumer level. Spray paint is useless, hair spray is pointless, deodorant comes in stick forms. Of course, not every country will agree on anti-VOC laws. It's impossible to convince countries, even the US, to create laws that inhibit the economy, unless there is some excellent reasoning. The evidence of VOC destroying the ozone pales compared to the evidence of CFCs, so it'll be difficult to create a global ban.
April 15, 2019 at 10:03 PM
Anonymous said…
I don’t think that every country would agree to replicate the phasing out of CFC’s with VOC’s. To limit the hairspray usage problem we can just limit the production of these. I don’t think other countries will take steps to agree on this type of change until they notice the horrific effects. We can reduce the risk of global warming due to spray cans by finding other products that have the same purpose but is more eco friendly. We need to raise awareness so that people understand the harms of aerosols which in result lead to the production of VOC’s.
April 16, 2019 at 10:25 AM
Anonymous said…
The Montreal Protocol is one of the only agreements that was unanimous. It was a great success, we are benefitting from it even today, and the ozone is in a much better condition than it might be. CFC’s are a huge proponent in ozone depletion. We can regulate VOC’s or CFC’s by placing a tax on them or banning them completely. With the amount of destruction that CFC’s cause to our ozone, especially with how long they last in the atmosphere, there is really no reason for them to not be heavily regulated. To be able to succeed in convincing to stop using things such as hairspray, we must tell the general public before any ban can be put in place.
April 16, 2019 at 10:47 AM
Anonymous said…
In my opinion, people will never completely respect the seriousness of a situation until they face it personally. In the case of increasing CFCs in our atmosphere, I believe that people should be aware of how dangerous these chemicals are and how they should be limited as much as possible. If that means finding substitutes for what humans use on a daily basis or completely removing the product, I believe that humans can truly create change if they work as a unit. My hope is that people will understand the severity of this problem and with it, act to effective solve it.
April 16, 2019 at 11:50 AM
Anonymous said…
I think that the Montreal Protocol was very important and effective in removing CFC’s, and the evidence proves that. However, I do think it would be very hard to remove the VOC’s and HFC’s from aerosol cans. It would be very hard to get a large amount of countries to do so, especially because we would then have to find another alternative. I think that we as people need to be more aware of the products that we are using, and the often dangerous chemicals they contain. If we can achieve that, then maybe we will be able to make some more important changes for our environment.
April 23, 2019 at 4:49 PM
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