this post was submitted on 02 Jan 2025
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In Person Activism
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I have had Maalox dumped into my eyes on many an occasion and haven't suffered any ill effects, but maybe if I become addicted to throwing rocks at cops it'll start to take its toll.
But I can also say with certitude the thing that will probably deal horrible long term damage to your eyes is repeated untreated exposure to all the fun varieties of tear gas the police have. Rinsing with bottled water or LAW is going to do far less harm than that so I wouldn't discourage anyone from it.
The advice given by opthalmologists for chemical exposure is always rinsing with lots and lots of water (...and seeking medical attention). I will choose the advice of medical professionals in most cases. :)
An addiction to throwing rocks at cops is a tough one to break; once you get a taste, it's hard to stop.
Is that advice about how it would be ideal to have a professional eyewash station pumping tens of liters past your eyes? Or is actually specialized for street medicine where you're lucky if you have more than 3 litres available?
It's easy for medical professionals to speak about idealized circumstances that don't actually apply to you or to focus overly much on what little they do know, especially once you leave the narrow range of high-status medical problems.
If you look at the chemical safety data sheet of tear gas and compare it to the components of antacids (one and two), you'll find that it is more dangerous to have tear gas in your eyes than it is to have pure antacid powder in your eyes. Wikipedia lists the safe exposure for tear gas as 100 times lower than the safe exposure for antacid, with tear gas being able to cause scarring in the lungs while antacid merely causes irritation if inhaled.
Note that in those safety data sheets, the answer for eye exposure in all cases is several minutes of rinsing with fresh water. That means tens of liters of water per person, which is simply infeasible in practice. So our goal is not to remove irritants completely, but to reduce the concentration of dangerous chemicals in your eyes as much as you will likely be able to manage in the next hour.
Antacid chemically neutralizes tear gas. If applied in the right dose, that can reduce concentration of chemical irritants to far lower than an amount of water you can reasonably carry with you. If applied in excess, you need to apply a decent amount for it to be more dangerous than tear gas, and as long as the end result isn't as bad you can follow it up with a rinse with water and still end up ahead.