If you’ve been keeping up with livestreams covering the incredibly brave and honorable people standing up to the federal occupation forces of the fascist Trump Regime, you may have noticed clouds of green smoke. This smoke is not tear gas, which is designed to temporarily harm you. The green clouds are created by hexachloroethane, a carcinogenic weapon of war that causes long-lasting damage and has historically had a 14% fatality rate according to U.S. Army records.
This chemical weapon is sold to law enforcement as “no risk” and “non-lethal” because the company that sells it to them, Defense Technology, the parent company of Safariland, has been manipulating the Safety Data Sheets by removing the toxic chemicals over time while leaving the formulation intact, intentionally permitting HC to be sold to law enforcement with a safety rating of 0. But it has 75 years of fatalities on record, and has been classified as a dangerous chemical agent since WWII. The U.S. Army Field Manual even includes a section titled Toxicity of HC Smoke, which states, “Special care must be taken when using HC smoke . . . Wear a protective mask whenever exposed to HC smoke. HC is toxic in high conentrations. Fatalities have occurred from HC smoke exposure during routine training where soldiers were not informed of the hazards.”
According to a 1997 report by the National Academy of Sciences, HC is highly toxic, carcinogenic, and lethal. The US Bureau of Prisons sued Defense Technology when HC gas led to multiple injuries during a training exercise. And even the U.S. Army itself was trying to develop a less dangerous smoke in 2012 because of multiple casualties.
US Army guidelines around the deployment of HC gas are incredibly restrictive, including “…as far as practically possible from populated areas . . . with special precautions to protect high risk individuals such as children and the aged.”
Multiple reports since 1980 indicate that the danger of HC gas has both immediate and delayed health consequences. Exposure causes uncontrollable crying, difficulty breathing, coughing, chest pain, vomiting, nausea, irritation of mucous membranes, rapid heartbeat, inflammation of the skin and internal organs, and chronic damage to the DNA of lung cells.
A stark lack of congressional oversight permits Defense Technology to operate with virtually no oversight, allowing them to endanger protesters, the environment, and residents and bystanders in regions where this gas is deployed, as the heavy metals released by HC canisters are known to accumulate in these regions.
It is unlikely we will see a ban on this weapon being used by the U.S. against its own citizens, so here’s how you can protect yourself:
- Cover all of your skin.
- Long sleeves, gloves, long pants, use a balaclava or tie a t-shirt or keffiyeh around your face to cover the top of your head and beneath your chin (so you can still create a seal with a respirator).
- A painters jump suit or scrub jump suit over your clothes is good, too. And a lot easier to change if need be.
- Purchase and wear a respirator with filters designed to protect you from smoke and particulates.
- KN95 masks are NOT designed for this.
- Sufficient filters can be found at most hardware stores.
- Good, full-face masks for gas can be purchased online. The investment is worth it if you’re out facing this shit a lot.
- CHANGE THE FILTER OFTEN
- If you are an AMAB person that grows facial hair, be sure to clean shave before equipping your mask so as to create a sufficient seal.
- If HC gas comes in contact with your skin:
- Use lots and lots of water on the affected area.
- Do NOT extinguish the munitions with water
- I know you’ve seen people use water and traffic cones to extinguish tear gas canisters. This does not work here.
- When HC gas comes in contact with water, it explodes at 1400 degrees Celsius. You are likely to die and harm others around you.
- Additional considerations for protest in general:
- Plywood can create an effective shield for the front line.
- Having those holding the front line hold open umbrellas just above the plywood shield will protect you from pepper balls and pepper spray and can bounce gas canisters away.
- Wear a hardhat or some kind of durable helmet to protect you from “non-lethal” projectiles like rubber bullets, which can permanently maim you and definitely kill you despite untrustworthy claims from the police and government officials.
Thank you to @nerd_nextd00r for the original thread on Threads that this post was based on.