
Neutralizing Tear Gas - SCAQTony
https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/health/a28904691/how-tear-gas-works/
======
idlewords
The Hong Kong police raise a banner warning of "tear smoke" when they're about
to fire, and this is a much less confusing name for the stuff than tear gas.

A cartridge of something hot and smoking skitters at your feet. You can throw
it back, or douse it with water, or immerse it in water, but you'll burn your
hand if you don't have gloves on. The smoke is a powerful irritant that feels
like someone blew pepper into your eyes and nose. If the residue gets on your
skin and clothes, you can tear gas yourself later by accident. Goggles and a
particulate filter mask protect against it.

That's really all you need to know about tear gas.

~~~
petre
Could one maybe use a hockey stick to throw it back at the police? Fire
extinguisher foam to defuse it?

~~~
owenmarshall
Protestors have thrown them back, but typically the police don protective
goggles & masks before they deploy the gas so it may not be the most effective
thing.

There was also a video going around of a protestor in HK placing a traffic
cone over the canister and dousing it with water to defuse. It looked to do
the trick.

Lots of protestors have the belief that a handkerchief soaked in vinegar will
have some type of "neutralization action" against the gas when worn tightly
around the face - watch protest videos and you'll see this in action. I have
no idea if the vinegar has any actual effect on the chemical or if a wet
barrier just keeps it from being easily inhaled.

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markdown
Well that was a frustratingly useless article.

They brought in an expert to answer the question and he didn't answer the
question. I still don't know what was in the thermos or what to use to
extinguish a tear gas canister.

This would have been more useful and interesting if PopMech had just bought a
few canisters, tested the various theorie, and reported the results.

~~~
goda90
The article quotes the person from the video who said it was mud.

~~~
paleotrope
Plus, a tear gas canister is just something that is burning slowly, so if you
immerse it in something you can extinguish it.

~~~
abakker
I didn't know that. I always assumed they were just compressed gas with a
pinhole poked in them or something.

~~~
paleotrope
Naw, it's just smoke from a different source then you'd expect. It's clear if
you've been in boot camp. They light up the tabs that produce the gas. Also,
gas grenades can get pretty hot, that's why you shouldn't pick them up without
gloves.

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HeWhoLurksLate
This is one of those things that might just be good to know for whatever
reason in the future. Thanks for the post.

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cf498
As no one else mentioned it, depending on which country you are in, you should
never try to pick up a tear gas canister shot/thrown at you as you might
confuse it with a flash bang in the heat of the moment. There is a long list
of people in France who tried to throw back flash bang grenades and lost a
hand as a result.

~~~
snag
Tear gas grenades used in France are GLI-F4's (
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GLI-F4_grenade](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GLI-F4_grenade))
and not flash bangs. It actually contains more TNT than CS gas to get a blast
effect (similar to flash bangs)

~~~
cf498
Had to read up a bit, but either way i seem to have mixed something up. I did
not know the French tear gas grenades also had TNT in them. But I read about
such flashbang/teargas mixups before their introduction in 2011. The non
french sources are a bit muddy, but Vital Michalon seems to have died at
Superphénix due to a sock grenade damaging his lungs?

But nevertheless it seems i mixed up France with Switzerland here. Though I
cant find the original source I had in mind, Guy Smallman had his leg severely
injured in Geneva during the 2003 G8 summit by a shock grenade.

[https://web.archive.org/web/20130507090403/http://www.nujadm...](https://web.archive.org/web/20130507090403/http://www.nujadm.org.uk/2009/photographer-
guy-smallman-wins-geneva-case/)

Thanks for the heads up!

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jonplackett
> Potassium nitrate particularly helps charcoal burn faster, according to
> Wired.

Is it just me, or is it weird for Wired Magazine to the the source of
knowledge for chemistry?

~~~
Shivetya
Odder for me were the informative articles on SyFy's site Bad Astronomy
section.

I will take good and interesting information wherever I can get it. Isn't that
what makes the internet great? That we have so many sources that we are bound
to come across something we had little to no knowledge of and then have the
ability to cross check it?

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nodesocket
When I was down in Santiago Chile, I actually got tear tear gassed as it was
deployed in huge amounts to break up protests. The police down in Chile don't
mess around, at first signs of a protest they bring out the armored vehicles
and just start firing away. It was brutal but also exciting besides the
burning, coughing, and watered eyes for nearly an hour.

~~~
pedalpete
I was going to comment the same thing. I used to live across from the park in
Providencia. Even on New Years, just to clear the streets, police tear-gassed
the streets in Valpo.

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goda90
I can't help but think that there could be an unfortunate inverse to JFK's
"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution
inevitable." in this. Tyrants finding their nonlethal weapons not working
might more quickly turn to using guns.

~~~
szemet
This strict split is also one of the central theme of Poppers "The Open
Society And Its Enemies".

 _" For we may distinguish two main types of government. The first type
consists of governments of which we can get rid without bloodshed — for
example, by way of general elections; that is to say, the social institutions
provide means by which the rulers may be dismissed by the ruled, and the
social traditions- ensure that these i nstitutions will not easily be
destroyed by those who are in power. The second type consists of governments
which the ruled cannot get rid of except by way of a successful revolution —
that is to say, in most cases, not at all"_ ... _" the criterion of a
democracy is this: In a democracy, the rulers — that is to say, the government
— can be dismissed by the ruled without bloodshed Thus if the men in power do
not safeguard those institutions which secure to the minority the possibility
of working for a peaceful change, then their rule is a tyranny. We need only
distinguish between two forms of government, viz. such as possess institutions
of this kind, and all others"_

[https://archive.org/stream/TheOpenSocietyAndItsEnemiesPopper...](https://archive.org/stream/TheOpenSocietyAndItsEnemiesPopperKarlSir/The+Open+Society+and+Its+Enemies+-+Popper%2C+Karl+Sir_djvu.txt)

~~~
claudiawerner
Doesn't this presume that the structures which prop up the government are
already an intrinsic good? Consider the frequently seen sentiment that no
matter _who_ is in office, it is the office itself that does not serve the
people, the government is not for the people, and the foundations of the
government work against the people and will continue to do so even if a ruler
is dismissed and another brought in. To use a more crude example, a slave does
not cease to be a slave just because he can vote out his old master - rather
it is the institution of slavery that must change, not merely adding the
ability to choose.

This is frequently found in political philosophy that goes well beyond
Popper's liberal egalitarianism. It's very strange to see this in the context
of a country which is ostensibly (but not actually) democratic, such as China.

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PavlikPaja
Fun fact: The Geneva convention forbids the use of tear gas at war.

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vaylian
I was wondering about exactly that when I read the article. The description of
how it works is really gruesome. Many policemen themselves have probably no
clue how it works.

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JulianMorrison
A lacrosse stick is perfect for scooping and chucking this stuff back. A
tennis racket would work too. And the HK protesters have successfully used
traffic cones as a way to contain and extinguish it.

~~~
whenchamenia
Anything possibly weapon-like is often discuraged at protests. Most want to be
non-violent, even if there is resistance. A boot or a heavy gloved hand is
fine.

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RickJWagner
I experienced tear gas first hand, as part of US Air Force training.

It's terrible. Your eyes water, fluids pour out of your nose and down your
throat, you choke. Truly an effective invention.

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Synaesthesia
The inventor of tear gas never meant for it to be used against civilians
protesting.

~~~
hutzlibu
And since chemical weapons are banned for military, I rrad the morbid
explanation for research in the area is "no worries, it will not be used in
combat, just for crowd control".

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roflchoppa2
Need to get this information to the people of Kashmir.

