redsquirrel
I put this on a different post but thought it should also be in the scent control section.
I'll be happy to start a match on the topic of activated carbon lined suits and their effectiveness. I hunted for 36 years without using a Scent Lok suit and 14 years with it and for any hunter to argue its effectiveness is not only a waste of their time, it shows they have done no research on the technology of activated carbon. Whenever there is a new scent adsorption, eliminating, or cover up technology brought into the hunting market, take my word for it, it was not developed by the hunting manufacturer that brought it to market.
The average R & D cost to a pharmaceutical company to bring a single FDA approved drug to market is around 2 billion dollars and most hunting companies are in the 5 to 70 million dollar a year annual gross bracket and simply can't afford scientists and or a sophisticated R & D department.
Any technology that actually works (and many in the hunting industry don't) for molecular adsorption, killing bacteria, molecular containment in the form of blocking, or an anti-microbial, was researched and developed for a much larger and far more sophisticated worldwide market industry than our little hunting industry. The hunting industry simply piggybacks on the technologies that were developed by other industries and governments worldwide.
Personally I never believe any advertisements from any manufacturers, any of the bloviating endorsements spewed by the so-called hunting experts that get paid to endorse them, or anything on any manufactures website, including Scent Lok's, when it comes to hi-tech scientific technology. Manufacturers and hunting personalities can and do lie and their is no hunting advertising police that hands out tickets for lying or false advertising.
This is where a little research by the hunter questioning any technology should come into play. All anyone has to do is simply Google the technology to see if it actually exists and if it does; how many other worldwide industries, hospitals, restaurants, governments, etc. use it, how it is used, and what does it do, and how effective is it when compared to similar technologies used for the same purposes.
Google activated carbon and you will find it is the most adsorbent substance know to man.
Scent Lok was sued for false advertising by a few Minnesota hunters that got winded and while extremely expensive to defend, it ended up being a blessing in disguise for any hunters willing to take off their blinders and look at what the outcome was. For a United States District Court, an independent lab at Rutgers University proved beyond a preponderance of a doubt that Scent Lok’s clothing worked as advertised.
The following paragraph was taken directly from Court’s final ruling.
-Expert scientific testing found that, using highly elevated odor concentrations that were “likely ten thousand fold greater than a human body could produce in the course of 24 hours”, Scent Lok carbon lined clothing blocked or adsorbed 96 to 99 plus percent of odor compounds, and essentially 100% of surrogate body odor compounds.
Activated carbon is used in literally thousands of industries worldwide for filtration, purification, storage, and molecular adsorption applications and when Googled here are a few of the hundreds of uses for it:
Gas purification, decaffeination, gold purification, metal extraction, drinking water purification, refrigerant gas adsorption, sewage treatment, every countries chemical warfare suits, by NASA in primary life support systems better known as space suits, gas masks, water softeners, paint respirators, filters in compressed air, volatile organic compound capture, dry cleaning processes, automobile filtration systems, gasoline dispensing operations, groundwater remediation, to adsorb radon for testing air quality, for oral ingestion in hospitals worldwide to treat overdose patients, in intensive care units to filter harmful drugs from the bloodstream of poisoned patients, to adsorb mercury emissions from coal power stations and medical incinerators, to filter vodka and whiskey of organic impurities, and by the US Dept. of Energy to store natural and hydrogen gas.
Just as; NASA, auto industry, U. S. Dept. of Energy, hospitals, and every Dept. of Defense in the world didn’t pull activated carbon out of a hat and say, hey let’s use this stuff, neither did Scent Lok.
Microscopic evaluations show that if all the surface areas of the primary, secondary, tertiary pores, and exterior surface of each particle of activated carbon were flattened and laid on a flat surface:
-A tablespoon of activated coconut carbon particles (activated carbon Scent Lok uses) has a surface area of just over 3 ½ football fields.
-And one pound of activated carbon particles (a small butter tub) has a surface area equal to that of approximately 100 acres (more than a half mile in length and a quarter mile in width).
Here's the kicker and the main reason many hunters say Scent Lok's activated carbon lined suits don't work. A suit is not magic and the many hunters that owned them and got winded, had no clue how to properly care for them and what to do in conjunction with them to have a total scent free regiment.
Carbon lined clothing requires very specific care and absolutely must be used in conjunction with a carbon lined headcover with drop down facemask, carbon gloves, knee high rubber or neoprene boots, and a frequently washed fanny or backpack.
Some ifs: If you; exclusively use scent eliminating sprays, wear face paint to look cool like the TV and video so-called experts do, wear a favorite logo ball cap like the TV and video guys do, don’t regularly wash your pack in scent free detergent and store it in an air tight container, don’t wear clean rubber or neoprene knee high boots, or if you wear regular gloves when ascending trees, you should definitely “hunt the wind” because your scent regiment is not perfect and perfect is a must when hunting mature whitetails.
Of course there will always be that guy that says, hey I killed a lot of deer without a scent free regiment. Cavemen also killed dinosaurs with spears and Indians killed with stick bows and wooden arrows. I also killed well over 100 deer with my bow before activated carbon technology was introduced into the hunting marketplace, but I have always been willing to check out anything new and take full advantage of it if it works and I feel totally naked in the woods with a properly cared for Scent Lok suit.
My willingness to look at every new hunting item is also what led me to use an Anderson Treesling in 1981. At first I hated it because it was different and uncomfortable, but I saw the huge advantages it would bring me if I altered it for my personal use. I have been using a harness system ever since and think conventional stands of any type are archaic and outdated.
If anyone would like me to forward them a guide in how to properly care for activated carbon lined clothing, go to my website at:
www.deer-john.net and e-mail me your request.
