# How hot do tear gas canisters get? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 17, 2012, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hot-do-tear-gas-canisters-get/634945 "2012-09-17T05:33:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Turble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8dc957/32.png) [@Turble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Turble)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2012, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hot-do-tear-gas-canisters-get/634945/1 "2012-09-17T05:33:15Z")
Anybody know how hot canisters of tear gas get? I’m seeing guys on the news who appear to be picking up the smoking canisters and holding on to them for a while while they run around. Just idle curiosity. ---
**Author:** ![Blake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a9a28c/32.png) [@Blake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blake)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2012, 7:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hot-do-tear-gas-canisters-get/634945/2 "2012-09-17T07:34:47Z")
Why would they be hot? They are expelling pressurised gas. I would have expected them to be cold enough to develop frost on the outside, just like any other gas canister if it’s emptied fast. ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2012, 8:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hot-do-tear-gas-canisters-get/634945/3 "2012-09-17T08:31:27Z")
[http://www.salemnews.net/page/content.detail/id/535582.html](http://www.salemnews.net/page/content.detail/id/535582.html) > [@](#): > > LISBON - The fire believed started by tear gas shells fired into the Highlandtown home where a police standoff occurred Saturday highlights the potential hazards of using such devices under certain circumstances. > > The Columbiana County Sheriff’s Office fired several tear gas shells into the Steubenville Pike home of Howard McNeal just moments before he shot himself rather than be charged in regard to an alleged sexual assault. > > “What happened is much of the home was under construction and there were walls with exposed insulation,” said Sheriff Ray Stone. > > Highlandtown Fire Chief Tim Roush said the tear gas shells are believed to have ignited the exposed insulation, with the fire following the insulation up the wall to the second floor of the two-story house, where most of the damage occurred. > > “That’s our ruling,” said Roush, whose firefighters and those from other departments were already on standby in case they were needed at the scene. They managed to keep the damage contained to the second floor. > > **According to the New York Times, tear gas grenades and shells incorporate pyrotechnic chemicals needed to turn the tear gas into a mist, and these burning agents, which heat up the grenades and shells, can start fires.** > > Stone is aware of the potential problems associated with using tear gas inside a building but decided it was the only way to bring the standoff to an end. ---
**Author:** ![Blake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a9a28c/32.png) [@Blake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blake)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2012, 8:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hot-do-tear-gas-canisters-get/634945/4 "2012-09-17T08:44:56Z")
Interesting. I assumed they were just pressurised gas canisters. Anyone have any idea what the advantage of a hot dispersal is? ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2012, 9:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hot-do-tear-gas-canisters-get/634945/5 "2012-09-17T09:15:51Z")
> [@Blake](#): > > Interesting. I assumed they were just pressurised gas canisters. > > Anyone have any idea what the advantage of a hot dispersal is? Tear gas is a solid: > **[CS gas | Use as an aerosol](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CS_gas#Use_as_an_aerosol)** > > As 2-chlorobenzalmalononitrile is a solid at room temperature, not a gas, a variety of techniques have been used to make this solid usable as an aerosol: > 1.Melted and sprayed in the molten form. | > 2.Dissolved in organic solvent. | > 3.CS2 dry powder (CS2 is a siliconized, micro-pulverized form of CS). | > 4.CS from thermal grenades by generation of hot gases. In the Waco Siege in the United States, CS was dissolved in the organic solvent dichloromethane (also known as methylene chloride). The sol... ---
**Author:** ![Blake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a9a28c/32.png) [@Blake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blake)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2012, 9:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hot-do-tear-gas-canisters-get/634945/6 "2012-09-17T09:52:14Z")
> [@Sage\_Rat](#): > > Tear gas is a solid: > > [CS gas - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CS_gas#Use_as_an_aerosol) You learn something new every day. For some reason assumed tear gas was, you know, a gas.:smack: ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2012, 11:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hot-do-tear-gas-canisters-get/634945/7 "2012-09-17T11:27:38Z")
Tear gas is a fine powder. A cloud of it in the air doesn’t necessarily all blow away – some of it settles onto the ground, where it may remain as little whitish patches here and there. I was in Berkeley in the early 1970’s, which was after the worst of the student rioting was over, but there was still a little bit of that going on. There were patches of tear gas laying about on the ground for weeks after each riot. If you walked across campus, you would sometimes step in them and stir it up a bit. The tear gas also kills a lot of the vegetation too. The landscaping around campus was badly damaged in a lot of spots. ---
**Author:** ![Rick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9f8e36/32.png) [@Rick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2012, 12:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hot-do-tear-gas-canisters-get/634945/8 "2012-09-17T12:07:00Z")
> [@Turble](#): > > Anybody know how hot canisters of tear gas get? > > I’m seeing guys on the news who appear to be picking up the smoking canisters and holding on to them for a while while they run around. > > Just idle curiosity. Need answer fast? ---
**Author:** ![Turble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8dc957/32.png) [@Turble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Turble)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2012, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hot-do-tear-gas-canisters-get/634945/9 "2012-09-17T15:12:02Z")
> [@Rick](#): > > Need answer fast? I hope not. But my curiosity is still idling. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2012, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hot-do-tear-gas-canisters-get/634945/10 "2012-09-17T16:37:10Z")
> [@Blake](#): > > Anyone have any idea what the advantage of a hot dispersal is? It’s not a pressurized container. It can’t go off accidently, it has to be ignited. The smoke it emits it also part of the effect, obscuring vision even at a distance. And it doesn’t disperse as easily as other gases might. Also, I don’t know what kind of gas could do the same job, but still be filtered out by a mask without a seperate oxygen supply. I’ve been in the middle of a tear gas cloud, it’s nasty stuff. ---
**Author:** ![Canadjun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/76d3ee/32.png) [@Canadjun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Canadjun)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2012, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hot-do-tear-gas-canisters-get/634945/11 "2012-09-17T16:49:55Z")
> [@Blake](#): > > You learn something new every day. > > For some reason assumed tear gas was, you know, a gas.:smack: Just FYI, nerve gas isn’t a gas either. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2012, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hot-do-tear-gas-canisters-get/634945/12 "2012-09-17T18:49:21Z")
Supposedly, tear gas containers started the fire that got the majority of the Symbionese Liberation Army in LA back in 1974. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2012, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hot-do-tear-gas-canisters-get/634945/13 "2012-09-17T21:05:27Z")
Forgot to address the OP before. A tear gas canister is like a little rocket engine, it burns from the core outward. According to someone who does tear gas training, the heat mainly going out with exhaust, so you can hold on to them for a while. But as the burn finishes up the canister gets very hot. Interesting point, when he used to do this for the National Guard he said they had more people wash out from latex allergies from the masks than lack of tolerance to tear gas. He wasn’t thrilled with guys falling over and needing mouth to mouth for any reason. Also, during the exposure test they used a big tear gas generator instead of canisters.