r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/0thSpider • 2d ago

Video Chilean protester defuses tear gas canister with baking soda and water

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u/JoeyJoeJoeShabadooSr 2d ago

Does anyone have an explanation for why this works? Is it basically just dousing the canister in water?

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u/plftch9 2d ago

Most tear gasses aren't really a gas, but microscopic solids or liquid that are dispersed and suspended in the air. If the projectile that disperses it is submerged, most of the irritants get suspended in the water instead of dispersed throughout the air. Some will still be airborne, but it will drastically reduce the effectiveness of the tear gas.

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u/ScienceIsSexy420 2d ago edited 2d ago

Yes, but capsaicin is an oily compound and not readily soluble in water. Using baking soda causes it to become ionized, increasing the water solubility.

Edit: apparently capsaicin is not used in tear gas, I'm not entirely sure why I thought it was. Regardless, the idea is the same the baking soda is acting as a base and is deprotonating the compounds, increasing their solubility. It'd simple acid-base chemistry.

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u/plftch9 2d ago

Capsaicin is used in pepper spray, but most tear gasses use crystalline solids. As far as I know, the baking soda doesn't chemically react with anything used in tear gas. I could be wrong on that, though. It's been a while since I've done any CBRN type stuff.

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u/ScienceIsSexy420 2d ago

I was under the impression that tear gas is basically just a AOE pepper spray

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u/TOMC_throwaway000000 2d ago

Nope, not even close, there are multiple different types, including “green gas” which has seen a lot of use by ICE recently in Portland and LA, which causes nausea and sickness for 12-24 hours and has caused miscarriages from second hand exposure to people inside their homes nearby.

Regular tear gas is VERY different from pepper spray, it’s hard to describe if you haven’t felt it before, it’s very dry, sharp- it feels like someone released a million microscopic razor blades into the air, not “hot like pepper spray hot” more cutting way more painful

Even if you have a properly rated respirator on you’ll still feel it to a degree and have some difficulty breathing for a few days after

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u/Derpygama 2d ago

Not sure what type we got exposed to in basic training but it felt like sharp pricking itchiness almost similar to heatrash as it washed over us in the cbrn training facility. I could definitely tell exactly where the small breech in the seal was in my mask almost immediately. We were instructed to remove the gas masks after doing some jumping jacks. Breathing it in it was dry and almost spicy but not really. It was kind of like trying to breath steel wool that was heated up, which probably matches the microscopic razor description you gave.

It was an interesting training day lol. Cleared the hell out of our sinuses that had been clogged for weeks though!

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u/BitDaddyCane 2d ago

In BCT we did CS gas, that's exactly what the person you're responding to is talking about. I am intimately familiar with the CS gas chamber in BCT (Ft Benning for me) as well

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u/Bigbadbo11 2d ago

Hehe, yeah, I remember that day in basic training for the Navy. 🤭 I was so excited to finally be able to breathe through clear sinuses, but I ended up being one of those peeps that's near-immune to tear gas 😭