Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Tear gas in use in France 2007 Exploded tear gas canister in the air in Greece. Tear gas, also known as a lachrymatory agent or lachrymator (from Latin lacrima 'tear'), sometimes colloquially known as "mace" after the early commercial self-defense spray, is a chemical weapon that stimulates the nerves of the lacrimal gland in the eye to produce tears.
Some water cannons let police add dye to mark rioters or tear gas to help disperse the crowds. In major unrest, police in armoured vehicles may be sent in following an initial subduing with firepower. Occasionally, police dogs, fire hoses, or mounted police are deployed.
The compound 2-chlorobenzalmalononitrile (also called o-chlorobenzylidene malononitrile; chemical formula: C 10 H 5 ClN 2), a cyanocarbon, is the defining component of the lachrymatory agent commonly referred to as CS gas, a tear gas which is used as a riot control agent, and is banned for use in warfare due to the 1925 Geneva Protocol.
Tear gas, classified by the United Nations as a chemical weapon, is so common that people often head to protests with gas masks or homemade solutions like a bandana soaked in water.
An Army research institute paper in 2009 cites riot-control agents and tear gas interchangeably. It says tear gas is something of a misnomer, because the agents tend not to be gaseous and modern ...
Israeli soldiers fired tear gas to disperse scores of protesters who pelted the troops with stones along the border with Lebanon Friday, leaving some Lebanese demonstrators and troops suffering ...
They are analogous to rifle grenades, providing increased accuracy and range over hand-thrown gas grenades. Gas grenades may be used by operators without gas masks, as the agent is only dispersed in the area of impact, as far away as 150 yards (140 m). The agent in gas grenades is dispersed as a gas or an aerosol spray.
Federal agents used tear gas while trying to disperse a large crowd of protesters in Portland, Ore., after fireworks were shot toward a federal courthouse.