Vanilco's spray to combat eve-teasers

The next time someone passes a lewd comment on a girl or tries to get too close for her comfort, the prank may leave him with a blurred vision, literally. Kochi-based Vanilla India Producers Company (Vanilco) will soon launch a 'very hot' self-defence spray, in line with the pepper spray used in many countries.

The company is using the hottest varieties of chilli to make a spray that can leave a man blind for almost an hour.

According to a senior official of Vanilco, the 10-ml spray gun will use the hottest chilli varieties such as Bird's Eye chilli and Tiger chilli that are commonly produced in Assam, Meghalaya and Tripura. The product will be launched commercially by the next month and a 10-ml pack, which can be used 10 times and kept secretly while travelling, will cost around Rs 350.

However, the question that crosses everyone's mind is why a vanilla marketing company is coming with a chilli spray to be used against eve-teasers? The answer lies in the fact that the remedy for the 'hot experience' of chilli spray is flushing the eyes with natural vanilla ice-cream. So, the company expects to popularise vanilla ice-cream by introducing chilli hot spray.

According to Vanilco sources, washing eyes with water or soap would prolong the spray effect for 2-3 hours. He, however, said the spray would not cause any permanent damage to eyes.

The company has recently done a study on the marketing of the product and the response was quite encouraging.

Bird's eye chilli has 120,000 scoville heat unit (the measuring unit for heat of chilli) while Tiger chilli has 400,000 SHU.

The common chillies used for cooking have only 35,000-40,000 SHU.