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What Tear Gas and Rubber Bullets Do to the Human Body


So-called “less-lethal” weapons like those that have been used against demonstrators in Los Angeles can cause severe, lasting harm like nerve or brain damage or blindness. They can also kill.

As protesters in Los Angeles clashed with law enforcement this weekend over the Trump administration’s immigration raids, police employed military-style tactics, including using tear gas, flash grenades, and pepper-spray projectiles on demonstrators. “The science used to justify the use of tear gas is outdated,” says Sven-Eric Jordt, an associate professor of anesthesiology, pharmacology, and cancer biology at Duke University School of Medicine who helped author the American Thoracic Society recommendations. A 2020 analysis released by Physicians for Human Rights and coauthored by Haar found that at least 115 people suffered head injuries when law enforcement officers shot them with rubber and plastic bullets during the first two months of US protests in response to the police killing of George Floyd.

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