Health Concerns About Tear Gas

What are the health effects from inhaling tear gas after five months in HK?

The Hong Kong government seems to think residents don't need to be concerned about the impact of some 5,000 rounds of tear gas that have been fired after almost five months of protests.

Secretary for Food and Health Sophia Chan Siu-chee said today that water and air quality in Hong Kong have not been affected by the firing of tear gas.

Health minister Sophia Chan doesn't have any concerns

On a radio show today, Chan said: "According to the air quality index recorded by the Environmental Protection Department, there are no irregularities from June till now," she said, adding the Water Supplies Department reported similar findings.

She added that tear gas had a limited diffusion range, and that there had been directions given to cleaners on handling affected areas.

Her statements contradict what local medical professors wrote in the medical journal The Lancet, where they reported the deployment of tear gas in subtropical environments such as Hong Kong could expose people to high concentrations of chemical irritants over a prolonged period.

The professors also raised concerns about the lack of government-led decontamination and urged the administration to invest in health surveillance and long-term environmental monitoring.

Emily Chan authored a report in The Lancet

In an article published in The Lancet last week, the medical team led by Professor Emily Chan Ying-Yang, of Chinese University, said she was concerned about tear gas deployment in enclosed spaces, such as busy railway stations and near commercial shopping centres, as well as high-density residential areas that sit in the "hot and humid subtropical environment of Hong Kong".

The tear gas used by police contains o-chlorobenzylidene malononitrile, an irritant that interacts with mucocutaneous sensory nerve receptors, according to the report. Emily Chan said the government should have official guidelines and self-help advice on dealing with the side effects of tear gas.

Citing a published systematic review of 5,910 people exposed to chemical irritants, the team said two had reportedly died, and there were cases of permanent disabilities, including blindness, vegetative state from traumatic brain injury, amputations and loss of limb function, as well as persistent respiratory complaints, among 58 others.

Humidity in subtropical areas could cause tear gas to linger

"However, data on long-term sequelae, carcinogenicity, and environmental consequences in the urban context are scarce," the medical team wrote.

The government doesn't seem to care about the health affects of accumulated tear gas fired on people every week in Hong Kong, nor does it care to keep track of how it impacts residents.

We may not see the effects until a few months or years down the road. By then it will be hard to prove it was tear gas.

Just another sign the government has a hands-off approach to making Hong Kong better.

Perhaps even more ironic is that health minister Sophia Chan also warned people that flu season was around the corner and encouraged people who were unwell to wear masks despite the anti-mask ban in place.

We may not know the long-term effects of tear gas

Just demonstrates how some people don't really have long-term thinking in Hong Kong...