[Peace-discuss] Portion of wikipedia pepper spray article

[David Green]

The US Army concluded in a 1993 Aberdeen Proving Ground study that pepper spray could cause "[m]utagenic effects, carcinogenic 
effects, sensitization, cardiovascular and pulmonary toxicity, 
neurotoxicity, as well as possible human fatalities. There is a risk in 
using this product on a large and varied population".[9] However, the pepper spray was widely approved in the US despite the 
reservations of the US military scientists after it passed FBI tests in 
1991. As of 1999, it was in use by more than 2000 public safety 
agencies.[10]
The head of the FBI's Less-Than-Lethal Weapons Program at the time of the 1991 study, Special Agent Thomas W. W. Ward, was fired by the FBI 
and was sentenced to two months in prison for receiving payments from a 
peppergas manufacturer while conducting and authoring the FBI study that eventually approved pepper spray for FBI use.[8][11][12] Prosecutors said that from December 1989 through 1990, Ward received 
about $5,000 a month for a total of $57,500, from Luckey Police 
Products, a Fort Lauderdale, Florida-based company that was a major 
producer and supplier of pepper spray. The payments were paid through a 
Florida company owned by Ward's wife.[13] 
>Pepper spray has been associated with positional asphyxiation of individuals in police custody. There is much debate over the actual 
"cause" of death in these cases. There have been few controlled clinical studies of the human health effects of pepper spray marketed for police use, and those studies are contradictory. Some studies have found no 
harmful effects beyond the effects described above.[14] 
>Direct close-range spray can cause more serious eye irritation by 
attacking the cornea with a concentrated stream of liquid (the so-called "hydraulic needle" effect). Some brands have addressed this problem by 
means of an elliptically cone shaped spray pattern. 
>
>   
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.chambana.net/pipermail/peace-discuss/attachments/20111120/3f8882e8/attachment.html>