<p>[Pepper</a> spray and its (painful) discontents - CBS News](<a href=“http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-205_162-57329889/pepper-spray-and-its-painful-discontents/]Pepper”>http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-205_162-57329889/pepper-spray-and-its-painful-discontents/)</p>
<p>But wisecracks notwithstanding, the effects of pepper spray on humans are anything but pleasant. As a 2004 paper written by researchers at the University of North Carolina and Duke University noted, this popular crowd control tool also is a potent inflammatory agent that can trigger myriad physical reactions ranging from the disabling to the deadly.</p>
<p>Particular brands contain individual mixtures of water, alcohols, and organic solvents and other compounds and their inhalation has been linked as a contributory factor in subsequent cardiac and respiratory, problems, including arrhythmias and sudden death.
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That last point may surprise the general reader but as Scientific American pointed out, the potentially lethal effects of pepper spray have been widely documented. For instance, in the 1990s, the Justice Department listed nearly 70 deaths it said were linked to the use of pepper-spray. A few years later, the ACLU pressed California’s Supreme Court to classify pepper-spray as dangerous and cruel, likening it to “a kind of chemical cattle prod on nonviolent demonstrators resisting arrest.” The organization further claimed that its use “constitutes excessive force and violates the Constitution.”</p>
<p>“Respiratory responses to OC spray include burning of the throat, wheezing, dry cough, shortness of breath, gagging, gasping, inability to breathe or speak (due to laryngospasm or laryngeal paralysis), and, rarely, cyanosis, apnea, and respiratory arrest. Nasal application of capsaicin causes sneezing, irritation, and reflex mucus secretion. Its inhalation can cause acute hypertension (similar to ammonia inhalation), which in turn can cause headache and increase the risk of stroke or heart attack.”</p>
<p>For those who have never experienced the effects of pepper spray, here’s one way to imagine the sensation: A century-old scale developed to rate pepper pungency. The hottest naturally grown pepper comes out between 855,000 and 1,050,000 so-called Scoville units. In comparison, standard U.S. grade pepper spray, ranged from 2 million Scoville units for the kind that civilians are able to buy legally and 5.3 million units for the sort of spray used on the U.C. protesters.</p>