What can Rubber Bullets and Tear Gas Can Do to Human Bodies?

From [HERE] The ongoing unrest in Ferguson over 18-year-old Mike Brown’s shooting has illustrated the increasingly blurry line between law enforcement and military combat, as heavily armed police forces in riot gear have repeatedly clashed with unarmed protesters. On Sunday night, that tension was on full display, and police reportedly fired tear gas and rubber bullets into the crowds well before the town’s midnight curfew.

U.S. police are increasingly relying on those so-called “non lethal weapons” for crowd control, a dynamic that’s inspired a national conversation about whether it’s appropriate to arm cops with weapons that are typically used in combat. Indeed, there’s increasing evidence that non lethal weapons can actually inflict serious pain and, in some rare cases, even kill people. Here’s how the police in Ferguson are potentially putting protesters’ health in danger:

Tear Gas

People run from tear gas after police dispersed protesters in Ferguson on Sunday night

Although tear gas is a chemical agent that’s banned in warfare, it’s perhaps the most common method of crowd control at protests around the world. Tear gas activates pain receptors in the body, causing a sensation of burning in subjects’ eyes, noses, and throats. In response to the pain, victims typically cough and choke, and their bodies produce excessive tears and mucous in an attempt to flush out the chemical. Because there are so many pain receptors in the cornea, it’s usually impossible for them to keep their eyes open, and some people report temporary blindness. People who suffer from asthma, or people who have been sprayed with tear gas in an enclosed space, often struggle to breathe.

Although tear gas is classified as non lethal because it’s generally considered to have only short term consequences, some scientists warn that things can quickly go wrong if it’s deployed incorrectly. There have been several reports of people dying in Egypt and Israel after inhaling too much tear gas.

Opponents of this particular chemical agent point out that there hasn’t been enough conclusive research into its potential long term health effects. Physicians for Human Rights has documented several cases in which people in Bahrain have suffered miscarriages, respiratory failure, and persistent blindness after being exposed to tear gas. The Chilean government suspended the use of tear gas in 2011 over concerns that the chemicals could damage women’s reproductive systems and harm their fetuses.

“These agents are certainly not benign,” Sven-Eric Jordt, a professor of pharmacology at Yale University School of Medicine, told the National Geographic in an interview last year. “There is no way to disconnect the pain that is induced from the physiological inflammatory effects of these agents.”

Rubber Bullets

A demonstrator shows injures caused by rubber bullets fired by the police during an anti-government protest in Venezuela this February

There have been multiple reports of protesters in Ferguson being hit with rubber bullets, which are intended to deter people by inflicting superficial wounds. Some people are posting photos of their injuries on Twitter. One image that’s gotten a lot of attention over the past week is a photo of a rubber bullet wound sustained by Renita Lamkin, an African Methodist Episcopal church pastor. She was reportedly calmly repeating “Jesus, Jesus, Jesus” when she was struck in her side.

These less lethal bullets typically cause abrasions, bruising, and bleeding. In some cases, they can lead to small bone fractures. According to a review of the tactics used by the Isreali police force during riots in 2000 published in the medical journal The Lancet, people often sustain serious injuries from being hit with rubber coated bullets. Researchers found that 152 people were admitted to Israeli hospitals in early October 2000 with rubber bullet wounds; 19 percent of those were considered to “severe wounds,” and three people were permanently blinded. Other studies have found that getting shot in the face with a rubber bullet can lead to serious facial injuries, leading researchers to conclude that they’re “less lethal but extremely harmful weapons.”

It’s possible to die from a rubber bullet, particularly if you’re hit at close range or struck in the face or neck. Between 1970 and 1975, the British military reportedly killed 13 people in Northern Ireland with rubber bullets. Autopsy reports of Palestinian civilian fatalities between 1987 and 1993 concluded that rubber bullets killed at least 20 people. Here in North America, there have been seven known fatalities in the U.S. and Canada from these weapons.

Rubber bullets have long been a controversial aspect of crowd control. Human Rights Watch, which has spoken out against the use of excessive police force in protests in Brazil, Ukraine, and Egypt, has also recently criticized police for using rubber bullets against the crowd in Ferguson.