tear gas


jts

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While tear "gas" is not technically a gas, all gases are banned as weapons of war by the Geneva Convention of 1925

http://www.icrc.org/applic/ihl/ihl.nsf/INTRO/553?OpenDocument

Gasses were banned by a Hague Convention in 1899:

In August 1914, French troops fired tear-gas grenades into German trenches along the border between the two countries. While the exact details of this first tear-gas launch are fuzzy, historians mark the Battle of the Frontiers, as World War I’s first clashes between France and Germany came to be known, as the birthday of what would become modern tear gas.

This early tear gas had resulted from French chemists’ efforts, at the turn of the 20th century, to develop a new method of riot control while maneuvering around international treaty restrictions imposed on “projectiles filled with poison gas” by The Hague Conventions of 1899.

"100 Years of Tear Gas" in The Atlantic here: http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/08/100-years-of-tear-gas/378632/

National Geographic here:

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/06/130612-tear-gas-history-science-turkey-protests/

The US State Department says, "We agree!"

http://www.state.gov/t/isn/4784.htm

A reminder from the International Red Cross

http://www.icrc.org/applic/ihl/ihl.nsf/INTRO/553?OpenDocument

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Had 2 doses of tear gas while in the Army's basic training, one inside a room, the other while on a march in the woods .

Not sure if they still hit the recruits with it now.

It was vile...can still smell it all these yrs later...you never forget it.

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I cannot speak to all cultures; and of course, human choice creates exceptions. (I would not trust the Yanomamo the Fierce People.) However, generally, the rules of war derive from a common tradition that guests have rights. If your enemy seeks shelter, you must grant it, and you cannot attack while he is under your roof.



It is significant that in one published version of the Nibelungenlied ("Song of the Nibelungs"; Ring of the Nibelungs; Siegfried Saga; etc.) from the High Middle Ages, Kriemhild achieves revenge on the Burgundians by bribing the Huns to attack them during a feast at the Hun's castle. This is clearly a violation of the laws of hospitality but only continues the narrative of previous betrayals and deceptions. The modern retelling of the wars of William Wallace in Braveheart is a more recent example. "Guest rights" appear in the Game of Thrones. In many Arab/Islamic places, if you praise an article in the home of your host, he is obligated to give it to you -- which is one reason why you never see his wife...



In Indo-European languages, guest and host have the same root, indicating a fundamental reciprocity. (Ghost is another word from the same root: they inhabit your home.)



Technically, the laws of hospitality apply to envoys. Time and again, however, they are violated as by the Spartans against Persians, but also by the Japanese against the Mongols. The Mongols themselves often killed messengers as a way to send back their own message. To us, it seems barbaric.



The word "diplomat" and the scholar's "diploma" both refer to the documented right to travel unmolested.



By the Geneva convention, only physically fit prisoners are to be kept. Those with severe wounds or sickness, including alcoholism and cocaine addiction, are to be repatriated. The operant theory is that they will not be returning to battle. It is also traditional that prisoners of war can be paroled. You give your word (parole) not to fight and homeward you go... but don't be caught again because you will be executed, of course.



We also do not execute combatants who surrender, though, again egregious violations are depressingly common. The slaughter after Agincourt was perhaps the paradigmatic case. During the American War Between the States, Union soldiers who were Black were executed when captured by Confederates. The Germans shot Americans who surrendered during the Battle of the Bulge.



The rules of war also specify that you must feed and shelter your prisoners at the same level enjoyed by your own civilians at home. That made life easier for German POWs than for Americans.



So, why don't these rules apply at home?



For one thing, many of them do: We call them rights. You cannot be held without cause. You must be taken to a magistrate and charged. The government can only come into your home other than as a guest after being granted a warrant by a court of competent jurisdiction. And their actions are specifically limited by that warrant. You must be tried by a collection of your own neighbors, not by the government itself. Your right to petition the government for redress of grievance is only an extension of your right as a guest in the home to request a boon.



So, how can the government use tear gas? Given that even the Huns had to be bribed to break the law of hospitality, obviously, we have been conquered by Mongols.


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Had 2 doses of tear gas while in the Army's basic training, one inside a room, the other while on a march in the woods .

Not sure if they still hit the recruits with it now.

It was vile...can still smell it all these yrs later...you never forget it.

Same here! You never forget! :laugh:

Our sense of smell holds the strongest connection to our memories.

Greg

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Yeah. They really put you through it in the Navy. Boot camp; OBA training through tear gas where you're required to take off the mask, then fire fighting (bunkers full of black smoke, impossible to see, breathing through your shirt), dragging hoses through bunkers with blazing oil fires, such fun. Then damage control school... Much more fun than all the electronics and communications classes.

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I thought the infiltration course was a blast.

Low crawling under barbed wire, with rifle & backpack, munitions exploding near you underground & machine gun fire (real ammo used w/ tracer rounds) flying over your head. If you stood up you would catch a 30 cal. round.

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Had 2 doses of tear gas while in the Army's basic training, one inside a room, the other while on a march in the woods .

Not sure if they still hit the recruits with it now.

It was vile...can still smell it all these yrs later...you never forget it.

Same here! You never forget! :laugh:

Our sense of smell holds the strongest connection to our memories.

Greg

The smell of a skunk would rank right up there with tear gas. I ran over one yrs. ago...still smell the varmint to this day also.

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The smell of a skunk would rank right up there with tear gas. I ran over one yrs. ago...still smell the varmint to this day also.

Did you ever notice that when you open up a cold bottle of Heineken beer that it smells like a highly diluted whiff of skunk?

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Distant skunk is fairly pleasant. Grew up near Pleasant Hill California in a then unincorporated area. Every week or so the smell of a skunk wafted through the air from some encounter with a hapless dog. Always made me smile. Maybe why I like Heineken, but I never made the connection. I'll pay attention next time.

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The smell of a skunk would rank right up there with tear gas. I ran over one yrs. ago...still smell the varmint to this day also.

Did you ever notice that when you open up a cold bottle of Heineken beer that it smells like a highly diluted whiff of skunk?

Adam are you sure you're drinking beer? That might be skunk.

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Distant skunk is fairly pleasant. Grew up near Pleasant Hill California in a then unincorporated area. Every week or so the smell of a skunk wafted through the air from some encounter with a hapless dog. Always made me smile. Maybe why I like Heineken, but I never made the connection. I'll pay attention next time.

Hello Mikee

Distant skunk, like 100 yards or more.

Pulling into a motel with the recent remains of a skunk on my tires cleared the poolside area of all humans. They weren't too happy with me. lol

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Had 2 doses of tear gas while in the Army's basic training, one inside a room, the other while on a march in the woods .

Not sure if they still hit the recruits with it now.

It was vile...can still smell it all these yrs later...you never forget it.

Same here! You never forget! :laugh:

Our sense of smell holds the strongest connection to our memories.

Greg

Hello Greg.

In addition to the smell, the tear gas burned the eyes, throat & lungs. It also caused nausea. Quite a few of the group I was in vomited.

Leaving the room cursing & in misery, the brass had us do push-ups. A double whammy.

-J

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Distant skunk is fairly pleasant. Grew up near Pleasant Hill California in a then unincorporated area. Every week or so the smell of a skunk wafted through the air from some encounter with a hapless dog. Always made me smile. Maybe why I like Heineken, but I never made the connection. I'll pay attention next time.

I had heard that the Skunk "spray/secretion" was used in perfumes/musks/etc. and I never confirmed it.

This is why I love technology - took exactly one (1) minute to find this:

A History of Skunk Defensive Secretion Research

William F. Wood, Department of Chemistry Humboldt State University, Arcata, CA 95521 E-Mail - wfw2@axe.humboldt.edu

Return to Skunk Defensive Secretion Page

How to deodorize skunk spray

There are five species of skunks found in North America: the striped skunk Mephitis mephitis, the hooded skunk M. macroura., the spotted skunk Spilogale putorius and S. gracilis and the hog-nosed skunk Conepatus mesoleucus *. (Spilogale putorius has recently been divided into two species, S. putorius in the Eastern part of the United States and S. gracilis in the West.) All are known for their potent means of chemical defense: the spraying of a repulsive-smelling liquid from their anal glands. For the most part, research on this secretion have been focused on the most common member of this group, the striped skunk. In this review, the term skunk refers to this species, unless otherwise specified.

Skunks and their defensive secretion have both fascinated and repelled natural products chemists. The chemicals secreted by the members of the mephatinae, a New World subfamily of the weasel family (Mustelidae) are so obnoxious that few chemists have been willing to work with them. On the other hand, once researchers publish the identity of these components, they were cited far and wide in the popular and chemical literature. This has lead to several incorrect structural identifications persisting in the literature for years since few chemists have been interested in reinvestigating these secretions.

Skunk defensive secretion has been called by many different names. A common term that has been used to describe this secretion is "skunk musk." Musk and musky are terms best used to describe the odor of the large ring ketones, muscone (I) and civetone (II), from the musk deer (Ruzicka 1926a, 1926b) and the African civet (Ruzicka 1926c, Ruzicka et al. 1927). These compounds and other similar synthetic musks are used a base odor in many perfumes and so it seems inappropriate to use the term "skunk musk" for this secretion. Better terms are "skunk spray," which describes the ejection of the secretion and "defensive secretion" which describes its natural function.

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Skunks are the best known example of defensive secretions used to deter predation. This secretion is stored in two glands (anal sac) leading to nipples that are situated just outside the anal opening. When attacked or surprised a skunk will eject this secretion up to a distance of about 3 meters. At high concentrations it will cause nausea and retching in humans and like tear gas, has lachrymatorial action if it comes in contact with the eyes. As lower concentration it is highly repellant and can be detected by humans at extremely low concentrations. Aldrich (1896) showed it can be detected at 10 part per billion (10 ppb).

The first report in the chemical literature on skunk spray was by a Dr. Swarts working with Wöhler in Germany (Swarts, 1862). They had obtained a sample of the secretion form a friend in New York. Swarts analyzed the yellow oil and found it consisted of a colorless fraction boiling between 105°C and 110°C, a higher boiling yellow fraction boiling between 195°C and 200°C and a nitrogenous basic compound in the residue after distillation. In another experiment he steam distilled the secretion and found the water insoluble part of the distillate to be rich in sulfur.

Another German, Dr. O. Löw next reported work on skunk spray (1879). He confirmed Swarts' findings that it contained sulphur compounds and a nitrogenous base. His major problem in completing the research was not his chemical expertise, but the reaction of his companions and coworkers. This is clearly illustrated in a letter from Dr. Abel to Thomas Aldrich of Johns Hopkins (1896).

"On an expedition through Texas in 1872 I had frequent opportunity to collect a sufficient quantity of this secretion to establish its chemical constitution, but all my companions protested against it, declaring the odour which clung to me to be unbearable. On my return to New York City I started a few chemical tests, with the little I had collected, when the whole college rose in revolt, shouting, 'A skunk, a skunk is here!' I had to abandon the investigation."

Thomas Aldrich working in the Laboratory for Physiological Chemistry at Johns Hopkins University next investigated skunk secretion (Aldrich 1986). He had a plentiful supply of anal sacs from sources in Maine. The amount of secretion in these glands varied with a maximum of about 5 mL. He description of the secretion follows: "the secretion is a a clear, limpid fluid, of golden-yellow or light-amber colour, of a characteristic, penetrating, and most powerful odour, and having a specific gravity, at ordinary temperature, less than water (0.939)."

The belief that skunk secretion contains 1-butanethiol (III) certainly owes its source to this report. Aldrich never stated the secretion contained 1-butanethiol, however, he used 1-butanethiol as a comparison to a compound in skunk secretion to authentic samples. He did think that it was likely a major component of the secretion was an isomer of 1-butanethiol. In his second publication on this secretion (Aldrich 1897), he says this part of the secretion "is a mixture of higher mercaptans, containing among others (still undetermined) normal butyl mercaptan. The belief that skunk spray contained 1-butanethiol continued until 1975. Andersen and Bernstein (1978) review how this misconception may have been incorporated into the chemical literature.

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In his first study, Aldrich distilled the secretion and found two volatile fractions, one boiling from 100-130°C and another from 130-150°C. From this he excluded several low molecular weight thiols (boiling point): methanethiol (6°C), ethanethiol (36°C), 1-propanethiol (67°C) and 2-propanethiol (57-60°C). Elemental analysis for sulfur in the low boiling fraction gives results that are close to what would be expected for 1-butanethiol or an isomer of this compound. The calculated % S for 1-butanethiol is 35.55% and Aldrich found 35.37% and 34.98%. Aldrich explained that these low values could be explained by the presence a small contamination by a higher molecular weight thiol.

Aldrich also prepared lead and mercury derivatives of the thiol in the low boiling fraction and again found the elemental analysis for carbon and hydrogen to be close to what he found for authentic 1-butanethiol derivatives of these metals. In this report he states that, "The results of these analyses are sufficiently near the theoretical figures when considered with the boiling point to convince, I think, the most sceptical that the greater part of this fraction contains one of the butyl mercaptans." The boiling point of 1-butanethiol is 97°C and the compound he isolated boiled from 100-110°C. Aldrich assumed this difference was due to the presence of higher boiling compounds in the secretion. There are three other thiols that that have the same molecular formula as 1-butanethiol: 2-butanethiol, 2-methyl-1-propanethiol and 2-methyl-2-propanethiol. Of these compounds, Aldrich attempted to synthesize 2-methyl-1-propanethiol, but did not succeed.

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In his explanation of the difference in elemental analysis of his compound from the skunk and similar derivatives of 1-butanethiol, Aldrich never indicated that he considered compounds with double bonds or rings to be a possibility. After Andersen and Bernstein (1975) identified this compounds as the unsaturated, (E)-2-buten-1-thiol they reexamined Aldrich's elemental analysis (Andersen and Bernstein, 1978). For many of Aldrich's derivatives, the percentages of carbon and hydrogen are within the experimental values expected for (E)-2-buten-1-thiol.

There is more in the article in the link:

http://users.humboldt.edu/wfwood/histskunksprayres.html

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Had 2 doses of tear gas while in the Army's basic training, one inside a room, the other while on a march in the woods .

Not sure if they still hit the recruits with it now.

It was vile...can still smell it all these yrs later...you never forget it.

Same here! You never forget! :laugh:

Our sense of smell holds the strongest connection to our memories.

Greg

The smell of a skunk would rank right up there with tear gas. I ran over one yrs. ago...still smell the varmint to this day also.

We smell skunks even without memories as they come into our yard at night. :wink:

Greg

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Had 2 doses of tear gas while in the Army's basic training, one inside a room, the other while on a march in the woods .

Not sure if they still hit the recruits with it now.

It was vile...can still smell it all these yrs later...you never forget it.

Same here! You never forget! :laugh:

Our sense of smell holds the strongest connection to our memories.

Greg

Hello Greg.

In addition to the smell, the tear gas burned the eyes, throat & lungs. It also caused nausea. Quite a few of the group I was in vomited.

Leaving the room cursing & in misery, the brass had us do push-ups. A double whammy.

-J

Hey Joe, :smile:

Yeah, we also had similar violent reactions in our company. It's a valuable life experience.

Greg

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