[mohaine]

Part of this is the regulation in the US around refrigerant reclamation. Once a gas is used as a refrigerant, it has be reclaimed/recycled or large fines can be assessed, even though the rules do not apply when the same gas is used in any other context.

This makes switching to a new gas much harder as the infrastructure for reclaim/recycle does not exist for the new gas, no mater how safe or better it is.

[z2]

I wonder if the use of these same gases for canned air is at all significant compared to its use as a refrigerant. Regulators seem not to care if people squirt off KGs of the gas to dust off keyboards!