Originally Posted by
linberl
if it's really windy can it blow back on you and if so will it hurt the person spraying? It's often quite windy where I ride and I worry about blow back.
It does deploy as a fog, not a stream. Wind definitely will blow it and even a tiny bit is extremely unpleasant and probably incapacitating. If other people are nearby, they will likely be affected. In populated sections of an MUP, I would not recommend using it at all. The person who sprays the chemical bears full responsibility for every droplet coming out of the can. You should only use it when NO other people are nearby. Usually dog owners on an MUP use leashes. You shouldn't spray a leashed dog.
My personal use has been in very rural areas. In those cases, my policy is that a dog chasing me but staying on the shoulder is not a threat. If it comes onto the pavement within a certain distance, it is a threat.
It's not going to blow back into your face.unless you spray it directly into the wind. Plus, I assume you would be in motion at the time of use. Really, it sprays a fog to a distance of 15-20 feet, with approximately a two foot diameter of the fog. The wind will disperse it, so you would want to keep moving away from that area. If you get a whiff of it, you'll find out why it's so effective against dogs and bears, as they are hundreds of times more sensitive to it than we are. If you manage to find a place to buy it, don't be too quick to use it. It's for emergency use only.