By Lisa Song
Protesters run away from tear gas on Monday in Philadelphia after a march protesting the death of George Floyd.
In the middle of a respiratory pandemic, law enforcement agencies have used tear gas in especially dangerous ways. The chemical agent also seeps into homes, contaminates food, furniture, skin and surfaces, and can cause long-term lung damage.
When Amira Chowdhury (click here) joined a protest in Philadelphia against police violence on Monday, she wore a mask to protect herself and others against the coronavirus. But when officers launched tear gas into the crowd, Chowdhury pulled off her mask as she gasped for air. “I couldn’t breathe,” she said. “I felt like I was choking to death.”
What is it about the police in the country that simply clings to strangling Americans, either by physical strangulation or chemical induction. If there are protesters that succumbed to SARS-CoV-2 after being tear-gassed, there needs to be a lawyer coming forward with lawsuits.
Chowdhury was on a part of the Vine Street Expressway that ran underground. Everyone panicked as gas drifted into the dark, semi-enclosed space, she said. People stomped over her as they scrambled away. Bruised, she scaled a fence to escape. But the tear gas found her later that evening, inside her own house; as police unleashed it on protesters in her predominantly black neighborhood in West Philadelphia, it seeped in.
“I can’t even be in my own house without escaping the violence of the state,” said Chowdhury, a rising senior at the University of Pennsylvania. On Wednesday, she said her throat still felt dry, like it was clogged with ash....
Americans need to receive an evaluation of a physician after being gassed. Lungs are important and so are the lining of the throat.
