Pepper spray = false security

To my huge disappointment, the bill to legalise pepper spray was passed in the Senate with no votes against.

The only sensible reflection I heard in the Senate debate, and it was an aside, was that we could use our potent scorpion peppers to become exporters/manufacturers of pepper spray.

So, sadly, TT is on its way to yet another instrument of violence circulating in the community.

There is a lot of worrisome misunderstanding around the subject of self-protection amongst our lawmakers and we, the women, whom they are all so keen to protect, are even more endangered by their myopia. Firstly, having a gun or any lethal weapon does not necessarily prevent a woman being maimed, raped, kidnapped or killed.

In fact, it could produce just the opposite. Introducing a lethal weapon in a dangerous situation only ups the ante. We might stand a better chance of salvation without the provision of such a tool for an easy kill at the end of some gruesome torture. A woman might be able to fight off a strangulation or act of physical violence, but not a weapon wielded by a frenzied or scared male attacker.

Maybe the thinking is that all assailants are heavily armed but, happily, that is still not so.

Furthermore, the idea that pepper spray is in good hands because a woman has acquired it, even after some arduous bureaucratic process, is totally erroneous. There is nothing to prevent it being stolen, illegally sold, loaned, misused or even turned against the owner.

One independent senator complained in last week’s debate that pepper spray was being treated almost as if it were a lethal weapon. Well, although it won’t kill you on the spot, it can result in death, which is why it is banned in many countries. In the UK, under a section of their Firearms Act, citizens are banned from its ownership, carrying, importing, and use. Contravention leads to arrest and a subsequent criminal record, and even deportation.

The European Union, as a body, does not regulate pepper spray, leaving member countries free to regulate it individually. Belgium, Denmark, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Sweden and Turkey prohibit its use. France, Italy, Spain, Germany and Russia allow it under licence, but its use may constitute an assault, simply because it is a very harmful weapon.

I read that even in the USA, with its gun-loving, wild west mentality, although pepper spray can be legally purchased and carried in all 50 states as a form of self-defence, some states regulate the maximum allowed strength and restrict age, content and use. In California, it is a criminal offence to use pepper spray against another person out of anger or in a way that is not considered self-defence, and can attract a fine and/or up to three years in prison.

Typically, the spray is derived from very strong pepper that is dispensed from a hand-held canister and can reach up to four metres. It affects the eyes by causing severe pain and forces them shut, leaving them bloodshot for up to an hour. The nose also gets burnt and irritated and the mouth produces extra saliva.

The spray also attacks the central nervous system and causes headache and dizziness, the skin can blister and most importantly, it causes swelling in the throat lining, restricting the airways and causing uncontrollable gasping, and the upper chest gets tight with irrepressible coughing.

Writing in Forbes magazine on the health effects of the spray, infectious disease specialist Judy Stone, who has tracked the effects of “chemical dispersants” for the last decade, says pepper spray also causes corneal abrasions and heart attacks, and people with lung conditions, such as asthma or COPD, can be seriously affected if the spray is inhaled.

Interestingly, she unearthed that in the USA pepper spray is regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency, as a pesticide: (http://npic.orst.edu/factsheets/archive/Capsaicintech.html) and not by the Food and Drug Administration, and the concentration in sprays for “personal defence” are ten times higher than the amount of pepper in bear spray. Other chemicals include chloroacetophenone (CN), chloropicrin (PS), also used as a fumigant⁠, and 2-chlorobenzylidenemalononitrile (CS), which activates specific nerve receptors as a kind of pain-inducing nerve gas. By killing off tissue in the lung, CS can cause pulmonary oedema and apnea (breathing stops), leading to death. It can do the same in the gastrointestinal tract, causing internal bleeding. So, pepper spray may be in a lady’s handbag in a cute little canister, but it is inhumane stuff. I would not want it turned on me.

Parliamentarians took the easy way out. The real work involves focusing on tackling the underlying causes of serious violence, investing in new intervention programmes that tackle poverty, illiteracy, family breakdown and specifically violence against women.

And, most of all, the business of reducing the number of weapons circulating, not adding to them, and so genuinely promoting public safety instead of peddling false hope and an empty sense of security..