Riot-control agents

Formerly, Chief, Chemical Casualty Care Office, and Director, Medical Management of Chemical Casualties Course, U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Chemical Defense, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland 21010-5425 currently, Chemical Casualty Consultant, 14 Brooks Road, Bel Air, Maryland 21014 

Riot control agents all produce effects by sensory irritation, causing extreme discomfort or pain in the 

The United States does not recognize riot control agents as chemical warfare agents as defined in the Geneva Convention of 1925. The Geneva Gas Protocol of 1925 was ratified by the United States on 22 January 1975. At that time, the United States interpreted the protocol as prohibiting the first use of lethal chemicals, but not of nonlethal ones such as riot control agents or herbicides. 

Of all the compounds discussed in this book, riot control agents are perhaps the most scrutinized by the public. In civilian life, law enforcement agencies use riot control agents in civil disturbances, riots, or to avoid using deadly force. The military commonly uses them in training. The symptoms described below, therefore, will be familiar to most military personnel. 

Irritant compounds were allegedly used by Marcus Fulvius against the Ambracians in the second century bc. The Byzantines apparently knew of the efficacy of using irritant substances to harass the enemy. Plutarch described a Roman general who used an irritant agent cloud in Spain to drive the enemy out of concealment in caves,1 a use similar to that of the United States in Vietnam 2,000 years later. 

More than 20 eye irritants (lachrymators) and upper airway irritants were used in WWI. Bromoben l cyanide (CA, BBC) emerged as the most effective 

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An incapacitant is a chemical agent, which produces a temporary disabling condition that persists for hours to days after exposure to the agent has occurred (unlike that produced by riot control agents). Medical treatment while not essential may in some cases facilitate more rapid recovery. In the narrower sense the term has come to mean those agents that are ... 

In 1974 the US Army approved the use of CR. CR has much greater irritating properties than CS and is about 5x more effective. In addition, CR is much less toxic than CS. CR is not used in its pure form (a yellow powder), but is dissolved in a solution of 80 parts of propylene glycol and 20 parts of water to form a 0.1% CR solution. It is used in solution as a riot control agent. 

Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) for Riot Control Agent CR. Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD ... 

The Conference did not result in a radical change of direction for the OPCW or substantive decisions on crucial, still outstanding issues (e g. so called non-lethal agents, riot control agents, law enforcement , nil declarations in respect of OCPFs and like. The problems of scientific and technological development were tackled only very generally. 

In the event of (a) the use of chemical weapons or riot control agents as a method of warfare, and/or (b) the threat of the use of chemical weapons, and/or (c) the threat of actions or activities prohibited for States Parties by Article I ... 

Crystal structure modification, in smart materials, 22 707 CS (riot control agent), 5 823-824 CS2, formation in the Claus furnace, 23 605. See also Carbon disulfide C-scan images, 17 424, 429 Cs isotopes, decay of, 21 303-304. 

Rinsing, for electroplating, 9 786-787 in ion exchange, 24 412 Rio Declaration, 24 162-163, 185, 188 selected principles from, 24 194-196 Riot control agents, 5 814, 823-824 Ripeners, in photographic crystal growth, 29 182... 

Uses. Chemical warfare agent (CN) principal constituent in riot control agent Mace in tear gas formulations for personal protection devices... 

Riot-control agents are also designed to have a rapid onset of effects, produce a high degree of immediate disability, and require a short recovery time as soon as the rioters are dispersed from the area. With the increasing use of such agents as CN and CA in recent years, their possible long-term effects have aroused concern. 

The Himsworth report19,20 recommended that any chemical agent that might be used as a riot-control agent be studied in the same way as a new therapeutic drug. To a considerable extent, this has been done with CS. 

Jones,In a critique of the Hlmsworth report, recommended abandonment of CS as a riot-control agent, because lethal amounts could be Inhaled under Mthe most exceptional circumstances."... 

CS has been widely adopted, especially In the United Kingdom, as a replacement for CN for use as a tear gas or riot-control agent. 

Ballantyne, B. 1977. Riot control agents. Biomedical and health aspects of the use of chemicals In civil disturbances. IN Scott, R.B., and Frazer, J., eds. Medical Annual 1977. Bristol, England John Wright. 1977. p. 7-41. 

Biochemical Interactions and metabolic fate of riot control agents. Fed. Am. Soc. Exp. Biol. 30 86-91, 1971. 

Rothberg, S. Skin sensitization potential of the riot control agents CA, DM, CN, and CS in guinea pigs. U.S. Army... 

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