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Re:The Montreal Protocol was a landmark environmental success by mindslight on Tuesday September 26, 2017 @11:28AM (#15339499)
If you want to work on a refrigeration system that uses R-134a, there are all sorts of laws about properly collecting and disposing of it, not just venting it into the atmosphere, etc.

But if it's not used as a refrigerant, the exact same substance is labeled as HFC-134a. This is what is in most of those "compressed air" duster cans.

Re:The Montreal Protocol was a landmark environmental success by digikata on Tuesday September 26, 2017 @12:34PM (#15340221)
I don't know about this particular case, but a lot of times when one looks more deeply at two things that are the "exact same substance", one finds that they may be primarily the same substance, but there are a number of surrounding details that are different driving the separate products. It could be different marker smells or dyes, or that there is a bit of lubricant additive in R-134a, etc...
Re:The Montreal Protocol was a landmark environmental success by gjjrfcbugxbhf on Tuesday September 26, 2017 @11:44AM (#15339657)
This does allow the duster cans to be banned easily without affecting fridges if it is discovered the gas is toxic.