Spray products

We have special requirements for spray products in orderto help people with sensitive airways.

When using various sprays – or aerosols – it is not just the ingredients that are important. If the droplets that are formed when you spray are very small, they may cause discomfort for particularly sensitive airways. Therefore, we assess more than just the ingredients when we have to approve spray products. We also consider the size of the droplets that are formed when spraying.

When using sprays, the formation of droplets in the air cannot be avoided. This applies both to the use of spray products under pressure, such as hair spray or deodorant, or pump spray products, such as body and hair mist. In general, however, pump spray products will form larger droplets than a spray product under pressure.

The size of the droplets is important for how long the droplets will hang in the air and, thus, how long they can be inhaled. The droplet size also has an effect on how far into the lungs the product can get: The smaller the droplets, the longer they remain in the air, the more you will inhale, and the further into the lungs they will get.

Products with our label must not contain ingredients that pose a particular risk of allergy and, at the same time, we set limits for the size of the droplets: At least 95 percent of the droplets formed by the spray need to be larger than 10 micrometres – equivalent to 0.01 mm.

In order for spray products to be allergy-labelled with either The Blue Label or the label of Asthma Allergy Nordic, they must undergo a test that documents that the limit for the droplet size has been observed. To make the test realistic, it is performed under conditions that resemble the actual use as closely as possible.