3 On exposure through skin, eye, or nasopharyngeal, these agents work as an irritant within seconds of exposure.

Tear gas: composed of chloroacetophenone (CN) and chlorobenzylidene malononitrile (CS) that is released into the air as fine droplets or particles.

The Mucosal Irritants: Tear Gas & Pepper Spray In Boston, the Emergency Department at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) temporarily set-up a HAZMAT tent outside their hospital to help decontaminate and help treat people injured during these riots. 2 As protests percolate throughout the country, an increasing number of news outlets are reporting serious injuries caused by exposure to these weapons. In some instances, it can lead to long-lasting disabilities or even death. While these riot-control agents are termed non-lethal or 'less lethal' by their manufacturers and the police, it has the potential to result in significant harm. In this article, we will review some of the more common weapons in the riot police arsenal, as well as those used by protesters, and the injuries with which they are associated, in order to prepare our student doctors and emergency physicians in training to handle said patients. Emergency physicians are seeing an increase in riot-related injuries in their hospitals. On the other hand, weapons employed or improvised by the protestors, such as rocks, sticks, knives, guns, and Molotov cocktails add potential for increased severity and mortality from the use of said weapons. Police respond with standard anti-riot measures, which often include a multitude of weapons, such as tear gas, pepper spray, rubber bullets, batons, riot shields, and TASERS ®.

Protests have become a more common occurrence.

The year continued with a drawn-out presidential election and another, potentially worse, wave of COVID-19 outbreaks.

As the country first began to ease restrictions, massive protests broke out after yet another avoidable and unnecessary death of an unarmed black man, George Floyd, who died after a white police officer knelt on his neck for nearly 9 minutes. 2020 has been quite the historic year for emergency medicine.įirst, the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 burgeoned into a global pandemic, overwhelming medical systems worldwide.

Can riot shield stop bullets