Ah crap. “tear” gas. tear. I honestly don’t know how the word “nerve” got in there. Jesus, can you imagine a hand held canister of nerve gas?
You win the award of the Golden Shovel for flinging bullshit right, left and sideways. In addition, you win the Lack Of Comprehension In Reading Award, for missing this very obvious line in the quote: Its popularity led to the brand name being shortened to simply “Mace” for all defense sprays (regardless of the composition).
Disagree. Someone who has been “pepper sprayed” has not been “maced.”
It doesn’t matter that the Mace corporation makes pepper spray too. Jeep makes baseball caps, but if someone hits me with a Jeep brand baseball cap, it would still be misleading to say, “I got hit by a Jeep.”
I doubt you even know the chemical difference between the two. Or the effects. Or the fact that handheld tear gas was pretty much fazed out 15 years ago in the US. Pepper spray just works a lot better, becasue it doesn’t use suspended crystals. So cut people who use the term incorrectly some slack for Christ’s sake. Your definition of “mace” isn’t even used anymore.
n/m
2nd EXPERIMENT RESULTS
In post #175, I initiated a 2nd experiment with pepper spray on pizza. It is now about 22 hours since I covered the slice with pepper spray from a safe distance. The slice has been sitting in my fridge, double-bagged.
I took it out just now, removed the slice from the bags, and put in on the kitchen counter. It had a very, very slight odor difference from usual pizza leftovers, but had not stunk up the fridge at all.
With trepidation, I took a small bite, chewed it, and swallowed. Spicy, you bet. A good flavor? Not really. I took a second, :eek: chewed and swallowed. I was expecting to have to gulp down water, but after waiting about two minutes, I can say that while the pepper effect was quite striking, I didn’t feel the need for emergency measures. I think I could have eaten a few more bites if there was a good reason to do so. I probably could have waited longer, but I took a sip of water more because of the slightly unpleasant bitterness than because it was too spicy.
The slice minus two small bites. Note the color looks pretty normal even though there’s not a square inch that doesn’t have a pepper spray coating on it.
Remember, I seem to have a high tolerance for chili peppers of all kinds, far greater than most of my friends. I have yet to find a Mexican or Chinese dish that I can’t handle, and I have actually asked some cooks to go nuts with spice. There’s nothing wrong with my taste buds otherwise, but I can’t say that my experience is typical of most humans.
CONCLUSIONS
So here are my conclusions, based on the particular pepper spray formula (might not be as strong as cop-issue), and two kinds of (Papa Murphy’s) pizza.
I think it is possible that a cop, with care and foreknowledge, could have reached inside a pizza box in a back seat and covered it with copious amounts of pepper spray if he was careful not to get splashed.
The smell dissipates almost instantly, and if the car was occupied just a minute or two later, the occupants would not be hit by a mist, and might not smell anything other than normal pizza smells.
An hour or so later, with no obvious clues as to what had happened, no pepper smell, and with a pizza variety using a red sauce and pepperoni or something like it to mask the spray color, they might have each taken a slice and each swallowed a bite or two before anything clued them in.
I do find it hard to believe that anything worse than spitting it out and drinking water was the result – a trip to the hospital isn’t suggested by my experience. I have two small bites in my stomach now, and I don’t feel anything out of the ordinary. Yet.
However, if the teens were less enamoured with chili tastes than I, and subject to peer pressure (if teen #1 said “eeew!”, the others may find it unpalatable through the power of suggestion), then it might escalate to an emergency room visit, driven by fear of the unknown.
BTW, I read all the fine print on the pepper spray instructions, and nowhere does it say anything like “not for internal use.” There are warnings galore about getting it in your eyes and nose. I can only conclude that the manufacturers didn’t think it seriously life-threatening enough to print a warning.
This concludes my pizza/pepper spray experiments. I welcome peer review and replication, but my publication will be limited to SDMB. 
The difference between a nerve agent and concentrated pepper? I sure do. It was also mentioned a few posts upthread. I also know how to use Wikipedia and Google. Do you know how to use the SDMB search function?
Musicat, I’m amazed. I sincerely hope you do not suffer any ill effects.
I’m eager for an update on what’s going on with the cop in this story.
His arraignment was scheduled for August 5, but has been postponed to August 23.
Musicat you are a hero in my eyes. The sacrifices you make to advance knowledge are amazing.
There might be new members due to your vid. These ones will not be the usual summer vacation ones, they will be my geek friends who think that a forum who has someone so invested into learning the truth that they are willing to pepper spray what looked like great pizza in the interests of fighting ignorance is a forum they would like to read.
Probably the Jeep.