Lethal in disguise: The health hazards of pepper spray

Remember the UC Davis police, spraying students who have a sit as if they were cockroaches? (And then support for their psychological scars of being so sadist was sought, and received $ 36,000 in a working (draft, more than children who got hurt!)

Occupy news coverage of UC Davis - By RT America (Internet Archive, YouTube) [CC BY 3.0] via Wikimedia

Occupy news coverage of UC Davis - By RT America (Internet Archive, YouTube) [CC BY 3.0] via Wikimedia

Not only are the demonstrators who have unleashed chemical weapons on them. Increasingly, school officials are turning to the use of pepper spray as a quick fix, instead of mediation and negotiation situations with anxious teenagers. In fact,

in the public schools of Birmingham, chemical sprays were used in 110 incidents with about 300 students over a period of 5 years.

The situation was so bad that a federal judge in Alabama-just a liberal enclave found that the police did not violate the constitutional rights of students with excessive use of force and not with the students after decontamination, rather than forcing them to suffer more.

Then there was a widespread use of pepper spray in Ferguson last year and protests on Wall Street. This weekend, crowds in Kansas City were sprayed by police on horseback, a view likely to see more regularly protest by heat, after Donald Trump incitements to violence .

What do we know about pepper spray?

Surprisingly little research is available. I have reviewed the literature in 2011, and wrote "Should pepper spray be brought to trial (clinical)?" Now, 5 years later, I have found no new research study. The new information is news about injuries , which have increased as the chemical is used more indiscriminately.

Pepper spray is capsaicin or oleoresin capsicum (OC), and is what makes peppers fire. As Deborah Blum explained, and you can see in this chart, "pepper spray commercial quality leaves even the most painful of natural peppers (the ghost pepper Himalayas) far behind. It appears in between 2 million and 5.3 million Scoville units. "pepper spray used by the police are outside the table.
Scores of Common Chilies 'Hotness' " Graphiq
Some of the best information on the damage of the OC comes from the ACLU. In its original report, "pepper spray Update: more deaths, more questions," ACLU found after spraying OC 26 deaths only have two years period of 1 for every 600 police sometimes used gas. They found that death was more likely if the victim was also restricted. (The cause of death was not strongly linked to the OC and some of the victims had been using other drugs too).

A new report by the International Network of Civil Liberties INCLO) Organizations and Physicians for Human Rights, "Lethal in disguise: The health consequences of many of Arms Control," found that more potent formulations of pepper spray are increasingly the weapon of choice for police Also report that oral contraceptive preparations may also include other toxic, such as alcohol, halo genated hydrocarbons, or chemical propellants. Such combinations make it more difficult to treat exposures. In fact, a document of Duke and University of North 2004 Carolina warned of other chemicals frequently used with OC pointing, "Inhalation of high doses of some of these chemicals can produce adverse cardiac, respiratory, and neurological effects, including arrhythmias and sudden death. "

The combinations may also lead to delayed reactions, according to the National Poison Information Service British.

This new review of the literature was much more restrictive in what studies were examined. As co-author Dr. Rohini Haar,

a physician and researcher emergency medicine at the University of California, Berkeley explained, this review excluded case reports and studies that "pepper spray was involved, but not necessarily the cause of death."

Therefore, "we significantly underestimate the number of deaths" due to pepper spray. However, even with such strict criteria and limitations, this systematic review of a variety of weapons for crowd control "identified 5,131 people were injured, two of these people were killed and 70 suffered permanent disabilities out of 9,261 injuries of chemical weapons. documented, 8.7% were severe and requires professional management of medicine, 17% were substantial. "

Severity of injuries of chemical irritants - courtesy ACLU

Severity of injuries of chemical irritants - courtesy ACLU

In previous studies, oleoresin capsicum (OC) was used in highly controlled settings, for example, 1 second spray from a distance of 5 feet and, not surprisingly, showed no lasting distress effect on 35 volunteers.

But in 1996, the OSHA "concluded that exposure to OC spray during training constituted an unacceptable health risk⁠,

with some police officers who have injuries that lasted more than a week. Acute symptoms include asthma, chest pain, and loss of consciousness, as well as eye pain expected.

in another report deaths by the Department of Justice, the use of pepper spray a contributing factor was considered. This is particularly true in people with asthma,

in which the Justice Department found that asthma is a contributing factor in two of 63 deaths.⁠12 clearly documented

Clearly, short, controlled studies of healthy people to OC exhibits, even when restrained⁠, can not be extrapolated to the real world, where people with asthma, obesity and many other underlying diseases are much larger exposures give and intense. Nor is it a short exposure from 5 feet away that can cause the same damage as the intense short distance deliberate exhibitions, we have seen the police inflicted on peaceful demonstrators.

As I noted earlier, "the police need to have protocols to identify and treat" sprayees

"with these pre-existing conditions that predispose them to serious injury from splashing. This is particularly true for people are also at risk of respiratory compromise is retained, in other drugs, or obesity. "This is even more true today, given the horrible deaths of Eric Garner and others who were subject, despite her pleas," I can not breathe ".

Since there are no clinical trials of chemical weapons used in crowd control, at least one medical monitoring of victims of chemical exposures by someone

competent and public health departments and CDC should be done for at least 24 hours should have objective data, and recording the results.

This should not be buried, as is the investigation of armed violence. As with all new drugs in development, studies should actively seek adverse reactions to these weapons, whether chemical, tasers, or explosions of sound.

Indiscriminate use of other control techniques dangerous masses pepper spray and law enforcement is increasingly militaristic hands. Vaguely defined

"interfering with police" or designated area leaving half should not be cause for an attack with chemical weapons. It is time the police took care to show restraint, respect for the protection of freedom of expression and assembly, and did due diligence both in the training of officers and especially in caring for the wounded.