Tear gas, rubber bullets & pepper spray: What happens to the body & how to treat each
Protesters and journalists have been met with tear gas, rubber bullets and pepper balls at rallies and riots across the U.S. over the death of 46-year-old George Floyd, who died while in police custody in Minnesota.
The measures used by police, while not lethal, are designed to break up crowds and — in the case of pepper spray — can also be used by the general public for personal protection, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
But they can cause permanent damage.
In Minneapolis, freelance photographer Linda Tirado is blind in one eye after a rubber bullet hit her during a protest, The New York Times reported. A spokesman for the Minneapolis police told the Times his department does not use rubber bullets.
Here are some of the more common crowd-control measures used by police, how they affect the body and what to do if you are exposed to them.
Tear gas
So-called riot control agents are often referred to under the blanket term tear gas, according to the CDC, and are made up of “chemical compounds that temporarily make people unable to function by causing irritation to the eyes, mouth, throat, lungs, and skin.”
But it isn’t really a gas, Scientific American reported.
Sven-Eric Jordt, an anesthesiologist at Duke University, told the science magazine that it’s actually “powders that billow into the air as a fine mist.”
“I think of tear gas as a pain gas,” he said. “Because it directly activates pain-sensing receptors.”
The tear gas law enforcement typically uses is made up of the chemical compounds chlorobenzylidenemalononitrile or chloroacetophenone, also known as mace, according to How Stuff Works. Police launch tear gas in the form of chemical grenades or aerosol cans.
The extent of the poisoning depends on how long a person was exposed, according to the CDC, but the effects are short-lived — typically 15 to 30 minutes — after they’ve been “removed from the source” and cleaned off.
Tear gas can cause all of the following, per the CDC:
- “Eyes: excessive tearing, burning, blurred vision, redness
- Nose: runny nose, burning, swelling
- Mouth: burning, irritation, difficulty swallowing, drooling
- Lungs: chest tightness, coughing, choking sensation, noisy breathing (wheezing), shortness of breath
- Skin: burns, rash
- Other: nausea and vomiting”
Anyone exposed to tear gas should find fresh air and “get to the highest ground possible” to avoid dense vapor clouds that linger close to the ground, the CDC recommends.
If it’s inhaled, the CDC says the person should remove and dispose of their clothing with the agent on it, wash with soap and water and throw out contacts if they were wearing them. Eyes can be washed out with water for 10 to 15 minutes if burning or blurriness persists.
After the 2014 protests in Ferguson, Missouri, some people started using milk to rinse out their eyes from tear gas, Vox reported. But the media outlet cautioned water is the only “rinse proven most effective in clinical trials.”
Jordt, the Duke professor, told ABC News the following year he didn’t endorse the practice, saying it wasn’t sterile.
But during the recent protests in Washington, D.C., Dr. Ernest Brown said he uses “a one-to-one solution of Milk of Magnesia and water” to counteract tear gas, WUSA 9 reported Monday.
Others have reported rinsing the eyes out with a solution of half water and half liquid antacid. Some antacids contain alcohol and should not be used in the eyes.
Rubber bullets
Rubber bullets showed up in the U.S. during the anti-war and civil rights demonstrations of the 1960s, Slate reported in 2000.
They encompass “about 75 types of ‘less than lethal devices’” used to incapacitate people without penetrating the flesh, according to the online magazine.
“The most common kinds are the bean bag bullet, a cloth pouch with about 40 grams of lead shot that delivers the equivalent of a punch from Mike Tyson,” Slate reported.
A 28-year-old photojournalist who was hit with rubber bullets twice during the recent protests in Minneapolis told The Cut he thought he had been shot with an actual bullet.
“At first it hurts in a concentrated area, but then the pain expands from the swelling,” Andre Mercharles said, according to the magazine. “When you hear the word ‘rubber,’ you feel like, ‘Eh, it’s gonna bounce off and you might be in a little pain.’ But I’ve gotten hit by a baseball before and this is 100 times worse.”
Mercharles didn’t end up seeking treatment for the wounds, but an 18-year-old in California had to be hospitalized after he was shot in the face with a rubber bullet, the Sacramento Bee reported.
The bullet left Dayshawn McHolder with “a quarter-sized gash on his left cheek and a broken jaw,” according to the Bee.
Pepper balls
A pepper ball is a type of projectile filled with pepper spray that’s often “launched from a device similar to a pistol,” WHIO reported.
Citing one of the manufacturers, the Ohio TV station reported pepper balls “create a 12-foot cloud” and can irritate the nose, eyes and throat of those who come in contact with it. The effects typically “wear off within 15 minutes.”
The pepper ball can be used from distances up to 150 feet, according to pepperball.com. The site also describes the relative injury risk as “low.”
According to a 2015 order approving a pepper ball launching system for police in Fayetteville, Ark., the chemical can cause “temporary blindness, difficulty breathing, burning sensation in the throat, nausea, lung pain and or impaired thought process.”
Suspects hit with a pepper ball have to be monitored for 20 minutes or until the effects wear off, the order states. Officers were also encouraged to remind the person hit “that the effects are temporary and encourage them to relax.”
Emergency room physician Dr. Troy Madsen told the University of Utah you likely don’t need to go to the emergency room after being hit with pepper spray.
Instead, those exposed should rinse their eyes out with water and take a lukewarm shower if they’re worried about skin irritation, Madsen said.
Clarification: This article has been updated to clarify that antacids with alcohol should not be used to rinse out the eyes after exposure to tear gas.
This story was originally published June 1, 2020 at 4:13 PM with the headline "Tear gas, rubber bullets & pepper spray: What happens to the body & how to treat each."
