![]() (For tips on other aspects of protesting, check our guide to protesting safely amid the pandemic.) What to do if you’re tear gassed If you see one being launched, get out of the way. ![]() Amnesty International recommends avoiding oils and lotions, since they can trap the chemicals on your skin, prolonging the irritation.īe aware that injuries can also occur from the propellent or bits of the canister that the tear gas is detonated from, and can burn you if you touch them. To keep tear gas off your skin as much as possible, cover up-wear long sleeves and long pants. For COVID-19 protection, you'll be wearing a mask, anyway. “Ski goggles would protect your eyes from getting any of the tear gas, but they tend to be disorienting and uncomfortable.” Safety glasses or sunglasses at least can protect you from getting any spray directly in your eyes. “Wearing eye protection and masks while protesting would be recommended,” says Dr. So it’s important to protect yourself as much as possible and act quickly if you are exposed to it. A study published in 2016 in the New York Annals of Science conducted by a collaboration of top universities states that “many believe the risks of tear gas exposure are understated and that perceived risks are based on insufficient human epidemiological and mechanistic data.” Glatter notes that some people have died after being tear gassed. “People say it feels like their skin is going to burn off,” she adds.ĭr. Tear gas also causes skin irritation, sometimes so badly that there’s roughness, swelling and blistering. Children, the elderly, and people with asthma and other chronic respiratory conditions can be especially susceptible. “Lung tissue is very sensitive and can be burned and injured pretty quickly,” says Dr. In your airways, the irritation triggers mucus, makes you cough, and makes breathing difficult-some people say it feels like they’re drowning. It inhibits people from orderly dispersal,” Dr. This causes people to feel really disoriented and agitated, especially since you can’t keep your eyes open long enough to run away. “It causes your eyes to spasm-it feels like there’s something in your eye and you can’t see straight and keep your eyes open. Your eyes, nasal, and oral passages start burning. There’s no regulation and no transparency around its production, and there’s no research around what potency is safe or how they’ve proven it’s safe.” What do you feel when tear gas is released? Although it was developed about 100 years ago, “research around it is pretty limited. ![]() It activates when it comes in contact with a tiny amount of moisture on your skin, eyes, mouth, nose and lungs, explains Rohini Haar, MD, MPH, an emergency physician at Kaiser Medical Center in Oakland, medical expert at Physicians for Human Rights, and research fellow at the Human Rights Center at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law. "Tear gas should actually be thought of as a type of nerve agent that doesn’t just irritate cells, but activates specific pain receptors, (TRPV1, TRPA1) leading to the intense and burning pain on all affected surfaces and membranes," Robert Glatter, M.D., Men's Health Advisor and emergency physician in NYC, has told Men's Health. ![]() ![]() Tear gas can be composed of a few different chemical agents and it’s not technically a gas it’s actually a powder that’s propelled into a spray that’s extremely irritating to the human body. Here’s what tear gas is, what it does to your body, how to protect yourself, and what to do if you come in contact with it. Tear gas does a lot more to your body than just make your eyes tear. (that’s what was recently used to disperse crowds in Lafayette Square in Washington, D.C. Yet it can be, and is, used as a riot control agent in numerous countries, including the U.S. Tear gas is technically a chemical weapon, and its use as a weapon is prohibited in armed conflict, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross. ![]()
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