Its Political Convention Time in Amerika. Word around the campfire is that to protect oneself from tear gas, wear a vinegar-soaked bandanna and swim goggles.
Question. Is this defensive measure effective? Other “home brew” recommendations, that do not include staying indoors or gas masks, welcome . Extra points if you were at the '68 Democratic convention.
I don’t know if there is any defense.
Personally, I’d like to see tear gas dropped all across the convention ballroom floor, maybe inside some festive balloons and after certain speakers speak?
That’s only for the entertainment value for the TV audience at home though. Think of the Ratings! 
And what about those of us downwind of the fiasco? :dubious:
(…ts OK. I don’t think they’d really do that. Honest!)
Unlikely. www.newssafety.org claims the vinegar rag idea is just a myth.
A better solution might be to crush up Campden tablets (sodium metabisulfite) in water and soak the rag in that. I’ve seen several sources that claim this counteracts the CS gas.
This is just totally a guess on my part… I have never attempted it and have no interest in trying. Unless the rag or filter is totally airtight against your skin, you accept that some amount of gas will make it into your nose an lungs. You might get a better fit with a dust mask or one of those runner’s altitude masks.
Regardless, any sufficiently tight swim goggles or diving mask should provide enough protection for the eyes (at least temporarily).
You still have time to plan a nice trip to Michigan.
Thanks Chihuahua. I see that Campden Tablets (potassium metabisulfite) - 100 Tablets, is going for 4.98 on Amazon.
My proposed defense: Leave my home-brew solution at home, and stay there with it. (My home being, conveniently, far far away from any up-coming conventions that I know of.) Yes, I know, everyone’s mileage will vary greatly, literally.
ETA: Just re-read the OP. Anyway, the suggestion is to cover one’s mouth and nose with a rag soaked in vinegar? :eek: Yuck! I don’t want to breathe that either!
Or lemon juice, which apparently doesn’t work any better than vinegar, but at least you smell April fresh, rather than having people ask you, “Mom, I have to ask you something really personal…”
Regards,
Shodan
Why don’t you pay a stop to an Army/Navy surplus store and pick up some CBR gear, and dont forget your tennis racket for batting back the projectiles.
Declan
I hear that you can build up an immunity to tear gas by getting one of those little canisters meant for women to deter rapists with, and squirt yourself in the face a little bit each day, and by the time of the conventions, you’ll be immune to it.
If you attempt this, please put it on YouTube.
Easier just to eat at an East LA taco stand every day and gradually add more and more salsa. Tastier, too!
I’ve sprayed myself tangentially with pepper spray: I was testing bear spray and accidentally sprayed it into the wind so I’m not sure I got a full dose. I could feel it on my body but that was nothing. I could feel it in my eyes but I could still see. It was however painful to open my eyes because the corner of my eye, where the crust is when you wake up, swelled up a tiny bit so my eyelid scraped it every time I opened my eye.
The weird part is that I didn’t feel stressed out at all. If it had been a person who had sprayed it on me I would have been stressed out by their attacking me but not the effects per se.
The only real place to find this information is The Anarchist Cookbook. I won’t go into all the details but there are basically two things to remember:
Got anybody in the household with severe respiratory problems? Outside of that the problem once it’s at low concentrations is mostly unpleasantness.
I was not a chemical officer but I’ve been exposed to CS on multiple occasions (including higher concentrations than even most of the people at potential riots will get.) I’ve also seen dozens of people get sprayed with OC and picked up some very minor downwind (in the 50ish ft range) exposure when the streams splashed off their faces and got carried in the wind.
There’s two major riot control agents in use - OC (aka pepper spray) and CS. OC tends to dominate in the directed stream for use against individuals in policing and personal defense. CS tends to dominate in the sprayers, “grenades”, etc used against large riots. There are foggers to disperse OC for areas instead of individual targets so you could see both if things get ugly. They’re different and probably not worth trying to describe the difference to identify if you haven’t experienced either.
If you have central air and it’s not on (I like fans and open windows until it gets brutal) close up the house and turn it on if you’re in nearby downwind sites. Concentrations should already be pretty diffused by the time it travels much downwind. Go inside if you are out and eyes, nose, etc sting a bit.
If you’ve got someplace like a garage where you can try to decon a bit, getting CS off of you there is a good idea if you’ve been exposed outside. CS is a powder that breaks down to the painful chemical on exposure to water like in your eyes, nose lungs, etc. You can shake the powder off your clothes. Shake them off and take off what you can outside (spray them down later with an outdoor hose if available.) Wash them before wear at a later date. No “I only wore these shorts for a little bit” ; CS powder could be hanging out there waiting to break down against your skin the next time you sweat.
Don’t rub you eyes, face etc. Seriously, rubbing it in does not help.
Blink your eyes a lot to help clear them once you’re out of the worst of it. Your natural urge is to clamp them shut. Don’t try to move around a lot to get inside with them closed. Especially don’t try running with them closed. It sounds stupid. It is stupid. In the heat of the moment some people do dumb shit.
If you’ve got a room air filter and some CS gets in might help pull the powder out of the air (with no idea on size of the particle versus what typical room air filters pull out.)
Cool water on the face was the decontamination method for OC. Let it rinse the agent off. CS that hasn’t shaken off will break down and rinse off that way too…although it might sting as it breaks down on your face. Do not, I say again, DO NOT, just hop in the shower. You want the contaminated water to NOT run down your body. Sensitive parts of the body plus RCAs is not a good mix. :eek: Remember it’s cool water. You want your pores closed not opening up in response to warm water.
If you get a good dosing in your area and have a lawn I’d make sure it had either rained or water before mowing again. If it was CS there’s a powder just sitting there waiting to break down with water.
Don’t freak out. It hurts. It can hurt really, really bad in high concentrations. Downwind it won’t hurt that bad. It’s not really killing you. It’s not preventing you from breathing and getting oxygen. It just hurts. The pain ends. Freaking out can lead to bad decisions that hurt and injure you. keep your head, embrace the suck and it gets over.
FWIW, “OC” stands for oleoresin capsaicin, the stuff that gives hot chiles their heat. It’s purified and made into a spray ("pepper spray’).
So if you’ve ever cut jalapenos or other hot peppers and rubbed your eyes, you have some experience with that active ingredient. Similarly, if you’ve had a really hot dish of some kind- same idea, just in your mouth.
CS is the US miltary’s code for 2-chlorobenzalmalononitrile, which is “tear gas”.
Seriously, other than my facetious recommendation above, I’d think your best bet is to buy a set of swim goggles and somethinglike this 3m mask for use against organic vapors and particulates.
One additional thing to remember:
You’re talking about a book written by a 21-year old anarchist-wannabe dumbfuck who was just pissed off because he didn’t want to go to Vietnam. It’s not even “the only real place” to find this information. Basically everything he wrote was copied from other publicly available textbooks… and often copied incompletely.
Take it with a grain of salt.
IMHO the best way not to get teargassed is not to associate with violent protesters.