What are riot control agents?
Riot control agents are chemical compounds that temporarily make people unable to function by causing irritation to the eyes, mouth, throat, lungs, and skin. Several different compounds are considered to be riot control agents. Most commonly used riot control agents are pepper spray and various kinds of tear gas. These chemicals disperse a crowd that could be protesting, in a riot, or to clear a building. These agents can rapidly produce sensory irritation or disabling physical effects which usually disappear 15 minutes (for tear gas) and up to 2 hours (for pepper spray) following termination of exposure. How do riot control agents enter the environment? Riot control agents are used by law enforcement officials for crowd control and by the general public for personal protection (for example, pepper spray). How can people be exposed to riot control agents? Because they are liquids or solids (for example, powder) riot control agents could be released in the air as fine droplets or partic
