Pepper Gas Exposure Study

Pepper sprays and pepper gas grenades are used by riot police at various places in the world for crowd control. Data about the acute effects based on human studies is extremely scarce. Kashmir valley in the northern Indian state of Jammu & Kashmir has witnessed political turmoil for the past 22 years and incidents of stone pelting are common wherein groups of youth indulge in stone pelting at the security personnel. While there have been previous episodes of fatalities associated with incidents of firing by the security personnel; non lethal methods are adopted routinely now. These include lathis, water cannons, tear gas and more recently the pepper gas grenades. The pepper grenades explode in the area and the adverse effects are perceived by the population in the area too who are even sitting in their homes. The study proposes to observe the health effects of the pepper gas exposure in non-combatant civilians.