On the tear gas being used in Tahrir
Issandr El Amrani | Egypt gas tahrir A lecturer in neurology at Ain Shams University, Ramez Reda Moustafa, issued the following statement via Twitter:
To the doctors in the field (tahrir and elsewhere), my experience with the gas used by the police: It causes extra-pyramidal symptoms (involuntary jerks in extremities and trunk mimicking a convulsive seizure, occulo-gyric crisis, etc.) and little respiratory distress. The jerking is relieved by low-dose (3-5mg) diluted diazepam given slowly IV.
The type of gas used is still uncertain but it is certainly very acidic and is not the regular tear gas used in January. Please try to capture as many videos as possible of the symptoms for documentation (and eventually legal action).
There is mounting indication that it might be CR gas as opposed to normal tear gas which is CS gas:
CR gas is a lachrymatory agent (LA) exerting its effects through activation of the TRPA1 channel. Its effects are approximately 6 to 10 times more powerful than those of CS gas. CR causes intense skin irritation, particularly around moist areas, blepharospasm causing temporary blindness, coughing and gasping for breath, and panic. It is capable of causing immediate incapacitation. It is a suspected carcinogen. It is toxic, but less so than CS gas, by ingestion and exposure. However, it can be lethal in large quantities. In a poorly ventilated space, an individual may inhale a lethal dose within minutes. Death is caused by asphyxiation and pulmonary edema.
The effect of CR is long-term and persistent. CR can persist on surfaces, especially porous ones, for up to 60 days.
. . .
In the late 1980s, CR was used in the townships in South Africa. It caused some fatalities, particularly among children.
Republican groups in northern Ireland have alleged that British Army and Royal Ulster Constabulary units used CR gas against Republican prisoners.
Because of its alleged carcinogenic properties, the United States does not utilize CR for riot control. The U.S. military classification for this chemical agent is combat class chemical weapon causing serious side effects for humans.
If anyone can confirm this, it would be most useful. I've breathed in a fair amount of the stuff myself and I feel it lingering in the back of my throat. People in Tahrir, though, are permanently in it.
Issandr El Amrani
Reader Comments (12)
Can you tell us what to give people to stop it effecting them so much in the first place? - home made solutions? vinegar? ...?
Thank you! x
If you know of people who are taking responsibility to document and gather evidence on this please let me know
Vinegar is a light acid. It may help you stand the gas in "smell", but it does nothing to combat the damages of tear gas in any form.
Repeated exposure means the sensitive you become as well. No matter if it is CS, CR or what ever. If you continuously go back after exposure - there is no healing, and the more damage can happen. High quality masks (not clothe) with special filters help, but this stuff attacks any moisture areas, including eyes, sinuses, throat, lungs, stomach. No matter if it is CS or something else, this is how it works .You will also spread it at home if you don't decontaminate before going in side.
Hey - article from Guardian with people discussing it (apparently "phyical exertion" exacerbates effects, although not sure why that would be the case today and not in January!?!)...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/nov/21/tahrir-square-us-teargas-used-egypt
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6TvJ4em8XI YouTube on Yeast water mixture (Arabic)
Encountering Tear Gas & Pepper Spray | Protection at Protests
http://occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com/2011/01/27/protection-at-protests-encountering-tear-gas/
http://medic.wikia.com/wiki/Pepper_spray_and_tear_gas
Tear gas used in Egypt banned for military use, causes liver, heart damage, miscarriages
http://bikyamasr.com/49065/tear-gas-used-in-egypt-banned-causes-liver-heart-damage-miscarriages
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CR_gas
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CS_gas
https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Adamsite (Unlikely but a possibility)
http://less-lethal.com/ Less lethal ?!? Words fail
Hope this is of use
I don't have personal experiences with CR, only CN and CS.
But if it would be CR, yor should feel it very quickly if you wash your face with water.
According to Wikipedia "While CS can be decontaminated with a large amount of water, use of water may exacerbate the effects of CR. Skin contaminated with CR gas may become extremely painful in contact with water for up to 48 hours after contamination"
I haven't found any product listings or spec sheets for CR gas on the website of Combined Tactical Systems, Jamestown, Pennsylvania, one reported source of the tear gas (www.combinedsystems.com). Point Lookout Capitol Partners seems to be a principle investment strategist for that company (www.pointlookoutcapitol.com).
This requires urgent attention! The government must do something about it.
http://www.zarc.com/english/tear_gases/crdibenzoxazepine.html - here is a little more on CR gas. Applying water burns the skin. It goes on to say:
In a poorly ventilated environment an individual can inhale a fatal dose within minutes. Death results from asphyxiation associated with the development of pulmonary edema.
CR medical treatment is largely palliative (to lessen the severity without cure), and induces reassurance, removal of contaminated clothing, and washing of eyes and skin. Eye pain can be relieved with medications.
la vérité est en marche, continuez!
I looked into this problem in Yemen months ago after seeing people convulsing after exposure to tear gas. A large part of the problem is from doctors giving oxygen to the patients. This has terrible effects as its increases the level of toxin in the blood stream and causes patients increased pain and their bodies to go into rigor.
The solution is simple - a paper bag held over the mouth for the patient to breath into. This increases the level of CO2 in the blood and dilutes the effect of the tear gas.
I have more information on this if anybody requires it.
More on the nerve gas used here:
The sun rose on Tahrir Square after a night of deadly clashes in which protesters claim that security forces used rubber bullets, live ammunition and copious teargas in an effort to dislodge them. The wounded lay on the ground – strewn with stones and spent teargas canisters – many nursing serious injuries.
Tension in the square remains high as tens of thousands of protesters continue to chant against military rule. They are furious that security forces had again cracked down on them only hours after Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi’s address to the nation in which he expressed sorrow for the recent loss of life.
“Why is the army killing us? Why?” protesters chanted in unison.
Concerned parents walk up to a field hospital to look for their missing son, Yasser Hamdeen. The doctor looks at the roster of cases he’s treated and shakes his head as the sobbing mother moves on to continue her search.
Attacks by security forces, protesters say, have continued sporadically since the previous night. Meanwhile, clashes continue in Mohamed Mahmoud Street, where many of the recent clashes have taken place.
Protesters, many with swollen eyes red from teargas, continue to emerge from the volatile street seeking help from makeshift clinics set up in the square.
“Anyone who goes in there comes out with an injury,” said protester Haytham El-Sayed. “I was shot in the leg with a rubber bullet this morning while standing close by.”
Ahmed Fayez, a physician working in what has been dubbed the “Kentucky clinic” due to its proximity to the fast-food restaurant, continues to receive a steady flow of the wounded. Most of them, he says, suffer head injuries, while others are suffering the effects of teargas.
“The attacks come in waves, but never stop,” Fayez told Ahram Online. “We had about 500 cases last night, but only four doctors to treat them – the rest of the doctors also ended up being suffocated by teargas.”
Every time field doctors manage to find a treatment for the noxious agent, Fayez points out, security forces seem to introduce a new variety of gas.
Another doctor, working at the nearby “Hardees clinic” – the closest one to the front lines and therefore the busiest – said the clinic had received hundreds of injured since dawn.
“The attacks just don’t let up,” said physician Ahmed Mustafa. “Since dawn today, we’ve treated 110 cases.”
In one clinic set up by Salafist activists, a young man walks out holding a blood-soaked shirt, loudly sobbing “Allahu Akbar.” A volunteer at the clinic tells Ahram Online that the young man’s teenage brother had just been killed by a gunshot wound to the head.
Throughout the square, protesters hold up and examine spent ammunition from last night’s clashes, including bullet casings and empty teargas canisters.
Protester Adel Hammadi fashioned a necklace from the spent canisters of three different brands of teargas and bullet shells. He pointed out that some of the canisters appear to have an expiry date of 2008.
Then he holds up another can without any labels or markings on it. “These are the worst. We don’t know what it is, but we suspect that it’s nerve gas,” he says.
According to Mustafa, the mysterious gas can result in fits and convulsions.
Indeed, one man entered a nearby clinic and appeared to have a hysterical fit. He began screaming at everyone before getting down on one knee and kissing the feet of stunned onlookers.
“It’s the gas,” said a doctor who refused to identify himself. “It’s making people crazy.”
At about noon, Health Minister Amr Helmy visited the square, where he denied that security forces had used nerve gas against protesters. He also denied the use of expired teargas.
Many protesters also expressed fury at Tantawi’s promise to hand over power to an elected authority next summer and to hold a national referendum on whether or not Egypt’s armed forces should remain in power.
“This is a joke, right?” asked Ibrahim Kandeel, a young protester in Tahrir Square since Friday. “The army will administer the referendum, so we can guess what the results will be.”
Anger in the square isn’t only directed at the army, but also at many of the country’s political factions. Salafist protester Ali Awad believes political forces are surreptitiously working to aggravate divisions rather than foster political reconciliation.
“The gap between the Salafists and liberals isn’t that vast,” Awad said. “But the political leaders we have are so stupid that they don’t know how to unite us at all.”
Protester Ahmed Ali, who has been camped out in Tahrir for three days, said that most young activists now in the square no longer support any of Egypt’s post-revolution political forces.
“The political forces are the reason we’re in this mess in the first place,” Ali said. “They’re all working for their own interests and don’t care about the general welfare.”
He added: “They forget that it was the young people who brought Mubarak down, and it will be the young people who topple Tantawi as well.”
Osama Fawzy, another young protester, nodded in agreement.
“Last night was hell. We almost died from the teargas,” Fawzy recalled. “But God’s on our side, and we will be victorious.”
Meanwhile, additional protesters continue to pour into the square. Some come alone; others with friends carrying medical supplies, blankets or food; others still come in organised marches, including one for students and professors from Cairo University.
A number of high school students, too, have organised a march from Giza towards the iconic square to express their solidarity with the besieged protesters. And it is the young on whom the protest rests. "Many of the injured that we have treated so far have been under 20 years old," one volunteer doctor told Ahram Online.
http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/1/64/27412/Egypt/Politics-/Defiant-protesters-remain-in-Tahrir-despite-violen.aspx
Just watching videos of the protests in Yemen of last January and February will show a lot of the fit crises.