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Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff production of iHeart Radio, Hey brain

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Speaker 1: Stuff Lauren vog obam here. Over the past two weeks,

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Speaker 1: enormous crowds of protesters in the United States have met with,

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Speaker 1: in some cases, ominous clouds of tear gas. But the

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Speaker 1: use of tear gas to disperse protesters and cities in

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Speaker 1: the United States and around the world could have unintended

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Speaker 1: consequences when it comes to the spread of the coronavirus.

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Speaker 1: The large crowds that have gathered to demonstrate for racial

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Speaker 1: justice and against police brutality in the weeks after the

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Speaker 1: death of George Floyd in Minneapolis in late May, we're

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Speaker 1: already worrisome to public health officials. Although many demonstrators have

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Speaker 1: worn masks, many crowds have grown much too large to

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Speaker 1: maintain social distance and guidelines. Also, the protests have typically

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Speaker 1: involved crowds of people shouting and chanting, activities that could

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Speaker 1: potentially send infected droplets far and wide, and that involved

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Speaker 1: the kind of deep, open mouthed breathing that has been

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Speaker 1: observed to increase the risk of catching the virus. We

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Speaker 1: spoke with Ambushment Key, PhD, an assistant professor of microbiology

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Speaker 1: in the Department of Biomedical Sciences at Mercer University's School

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Speaker 1: of Medicine in Making, Georgia. She explained, tear gas components

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Speaker 1: are mainly there to hit the pain receptors in your

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Speaker 1: body to get you to move. It's like you're poked

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Speaker 1: with a stick. You want to get away from the pain.

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Speaker 1: The other thing tear gas does is trigger your parasympathetic response,

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Speaker 1: a neurologic series of activities that are outside of your control.

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Speaker 1: But because there's a chemical irritant in place, your body

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Speaker 1: is going to do everything it can to flush it out.

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Speaker 1: A person will feel the symptoms of the chemicals most

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Speaker 1: commonly used in tear gas, CSCN and CR within twenty

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Speaker 1: to thirty seconds after being exposed. Schmicky said, it's going

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Speaker 1: to increase mucus production along the sites where you've had exposure,

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Speaker 1: and that's mainly your respiratory mucos alignings in your nose.

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Speaker 1: That means you'll have a runny nose. You're going to

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Speaker 1: have mucas production in the lungs along the track ya

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Speaker 1: your windpipe. You're going to want to cough that out.

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Speaker 1: You're also going to want to salivate more than you

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Speaker 1: ordinarily would you're going to produce more tears. How much

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Speaker 1: a person is affected depends on many variables, such as

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Speaker 1: whether there's a breeze or how close they are to

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Speaker 1: the agent. A person's eyes will sting, they may sneeze

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Speaker 1: or rich Schmickey said, But the most dangerous thing is

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Speaker 1: the coughing that will happen in response to the tear gas.

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Speaker 1: It's a deep cough because you're trying so hard to

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Speaker 1: get this out of your body, and it has the

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Speaker 1: potential to spread vible particles rather far. It's your body's

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Speaker 1: natural response to get rid of a chemical irritant. But

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Speaker 1: it's the same mechanism that we're concerned about with virus spread.

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Speaker 1: It's the perfect storm of things you don't want to

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Speaker 1: happen in a pandemic. And of course she's not the

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Speaker 1: only concerned party. During a June four House Appropriations hearing

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Speaker 1: on the Coronavirus Response Centers for Disease Controlled Director doctor

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Speaker 1: Robert Redfield also specifically called out that the use of

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Speaker 1: tear gas by police might help the virus spread. We

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Speaker 1: also spoke with Forest Brown, a resident of Atlanta who

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Speaker 1: lives downtown just two blocks from the CNN building and

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Speaker 1: Centennial Olympic Park. The entire area has been the site

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Speaker 1: of many Atlanta protests past and present. The first weekend

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Speaker 1: of the current demonstrations, he stood outside his building with

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Speaker 1: neighbors with an eye on protecting their property when he

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Speaker 1: got a whiff of a pungent odor tear gas. Brown said,

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Speaker 1: we could smell it and it stung our eyes. We

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Speaker 1: would go inside waited out, but it wasn't a strong hit.

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Speaker 1: You could feel it, but then it dissipated. That was Saturday.

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Speaker 1: Sunday night was a different story. Brown said, I was

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Speaker 1: actually in the interior courtyard of our building. I didn't

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Speaker 1: see the cloud, but it was a bad dose. Compared

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Speaker 1: to Saturday night, my symptoms were much worse, stinging and

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Speaker 1: watering eyes. It also made my lips feel like they

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Speaker 1: were tingling and burning. I felt like I wanted to

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Speaker 1: throw up. It made me feel very weak, almost jittery,

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Speaker 1: like I might pass out. Brown says the worst of

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Speaker 1: it was over in about thirty minutes, though he felt

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Speaker 1: nauseated for several hours and even had blurred vision on Monday,

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Speaker 1: though he was wearing a mask following standard protocols and

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Speaker 1: a full block away from where the tear gas was

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Speaker 1: actually released, he was exposed to it. Schmid Key is

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Speaker 1: concerned with the use of tear gas demonstrations during the pandemic,

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Speaker 1: not only because it potentially increases the spread of the coronavirus,

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Speaker 1: but also because the same people who are at risk

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Speaker 1: for COVID nineteen infection people with underlying conditions, are also

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Speaker 1: at risk for side effects from tear gas exposure. Schmidkey said,

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Speaker 1: COVID nineteen sort of blurs the lines between being a

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Speaker 1: respiratory disease and a cardiovascular disease. The similarities aren't uniform,

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Speaker 1: but if you have asthma, you're going to be at

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Speaker 1: higher risk of complications from something like a tear gas exposure.

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Speaker 1: People who have chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or any of

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Speaker 1: those sorts of ailments could have more severe outcomes. She

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Speaker 1: concedes that it's a difficult situation because a person can

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Speaker 1: make plans to participate in a peaceful protest and find

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Speaker 1: themselves in a situation that they aren't prepared for. She

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Speaker 1: encourages all protesters, whether they were exposed to tear gas

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Speaker 1: or not, to make plans to be tested for COVID nineteen. However,

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Speaker 1: don't get tested immediately. When the virus gets into the body,

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Speaker 1: it goes into what's called the eclipse period, hiding out

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Speaker 1: in the cells while it makes copies of itself. Then

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Speaker 1: it starts to leave the cells and spread to other cells,

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Speaker 1: and that's when it becomes detectable. Schmickey suggests that everyone

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Speaker 1: who has been at a protest rally get tested between

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Speaker 1: three and seven days after participating, even if they're not

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Speaker 1: showing symptoms, because of the high rate of asymptomatic carriers.

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Speaker 1: CDC Director Redfield issued the same advice at the June

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Speaker 1: fourth Sended Appropriations hearing, saying, I do think there's a potential, unfortunately,

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Speaker 1: for this to be a seating event. Schmickey said, protesters

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Speaker 1: do have some things going for them. They're outside, they

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Speaker 1: have the benefit of ventilation, they have sunlight. We know

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Speaker 1: that evy light is an't advantageous for the virus. Protesters

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Speaker 1: are typically young, but I wouldn't count on those things

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Speaker 1: being some sort of anti COVID security blanket if you

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Speaker 1: do come into contact with tear gas. Amnesty International says

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Speaker 1: that gas masks are the best protection if they're properly

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Speaker 1: fitted and sealed, though if you don't have one, they

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Speaker 1: recommend wearing goggles and a respirator or a wet bandana

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Speaker 1: over the nose and mouth. If you're exposed, try to

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Speaker 1: stay calm and breathe slowly, blow your nose, rinse your

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Speaker 1: mouth with water, cough and spit. Try not to swallow,

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Speaker 1: because you want to get those irritants out. Today's episode

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Speaker 1: was written by Patty Resmusen and produced by Tyler Playing.

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Speaker 1: For more in this and lots of other topics, visit

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Speaker 1: how stuff works dot com. Brain Stuff is production of

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