The Future of a City: A million people has inhaled tear gas and the extent of harm has yet to be investigated



Mingpao (Translated by Guardians of Hong Kong)



Summary: Almost all districts in Hong Kong have now been contaminated by tear gas residue. The harmful effects of chemical residue are not fully known but tear gas deployment itself can be lethal. Tear gas has not proven to be an effective crowd control tool.

A total of more than 9,124 canisters of tear gas has been expended ever since the start of the Anti-Extradition Bill movement. While the smell of tear gas is no longer a stranger to the citizens of Hong Kong, these acrid smog emits dioxins, a highly toxic chemical compound that is harmful to health.

Photo: Unknown Source (Figures are from police briefings)





It is now November but the resistance sparked by the anti-extradition bill movement is showing no signs of retreat. In October alone, the police fired over 2000 canisters of tear gas. A total of nearly 6000 rounds of tear gas canisters have been fired in the past five months with an increasing number districts impacted by tear gas contamination. As of October, only the Northern District, Kowloon City and Island Districts remained unscathed. While citizens are beginning to accept weekend tear gas deployment as the norm, we have to ask:





• How many people have breathed in the tear gas?

• Is tear gas an effective crowd-control tool?

• Does the public trust the Government and the police in the way they use tear gas?





Tens of thousands of people or more inhaled tear gas





Our research team conducted a series of surveys during strikes, assemblies and demonstrations on September 8th and 15th. We collected 2468 questionnaires. Most of the participants were between 18 to 25 years, accounting for the largest proportion (45%) whilst the second largest age group was between 26 to 35 years old (29%). Even though the surveys were mainly conducted on Hong Kong Island, the coverage of the participants’ actual places of residence was broad: 49% from New Territories; 29% from Kowloon; 18% from Hong Kong Island. The residential districts of the remaining 4% were unknown.





The surveys showed that 71% of participants indicated they inhaled tear gas at least once during these rallies. During the period between June and September, police had fired 3,500 rounds of tear gas. Since then, another 2,500 rounds have been fired. Based on a conservative estimate by scholars, at least one million citizens have been active in protests. Since all major residential districts have been affected by teargas, the impacted population might actually reach several hundred thousands or even a million.





It is worthy to note that we have also calculated how many times each surveyed individual might had been exposed to tear gas. Assuming that one canister fired is equivalent to one tear gas exposure, 8% of interviewees admitted they came into contact with tear gas within a distance of less than 5 metres more than 20 times. Up to 3% of interviewees had more than 100 tear gas exposures within the same distance. 13% and 5% of interviewees said they had at least 20 and more than 100 tear gas exposures beyond a 5 metre distance respectively.





Lack of trust in the public health system - citizens choose to take care of wounds on their own





According to documented records, tear gas can cause health problems such as diarrhoea, respiratory and skin allergy. Recently in Iraq, there were deaths from excessive intake of tear gas and also from tear gas canisters shot in the head. Other organizations pointed out that chemical residue of tear gas can stay within the communities from two to three weeks and it is also difficult to thoroughly cleanse. There is also concern about the sequelae and the fear of seeking medical treatment for tear gas injuries. In early September’s survey findings, around 53% of interviewees indicated that they felt sick after the intake of tear gas, 35% of them received emergency first aid treatment and assistance from other citizens on the site. However, nobody from this group sought help from the hospital. Overall, less than 1% of people who inhaled tear gas sought treatment from public and private hospitals. On the contrary, 67% of the those surveyed tend to treat the wounds on their own. Another 8% sought treatment from voluntary organizations.





Were the injuries not too critical or do people not trust the public health system in Hong Kong? The answer seems more likely to be the latter. When being asked whether they had confidence in hospital treatments, 81% of people indicated that the Hospital Authority was either very untrustworthy or untrustworthy. The statistics indicate that those people who had been more frequently affected by tear gas tended to be more sceptical about the conventional healthcare system. There is an overwhelming (97% and 98% respectively) opinion that the police have not deployed tear gas reasonably and legitimately and; that the SAR government has not managed the use of tear gas and the subsequent treatment of chemical residue properly. The results were consistent with other similar citizens’ survey conducted by other academic institutions.





Hard to rely on voluntary organizations in the long run





Since the movement in opposition to the extradition bill began in June, the ability of the public hospitals, the Hospital Authority and private hospitals to safeguard patients’ safety and protecting their personal data privacy has been questioned. The medical profession accuse the police of unlawfully exercising their power at the hospitals to arrest people and to collect evidence without reason. There were incidents involving police officer storming into the emergency units to search and arrest injured protestors and entering maternity wards to collect information from pregnant women. Over the past four months, people have been losing their trust in the government and the police. The distrust of the government and the police extends to the public health system as more people become suspicious of collusion between the police and the Hospital Authority to facilitate police operations. Such scepticism deters people from seeking help at public hospitals or they turn to voluntary organizations that are not within the system. However, most of the staff at these voluntary entities can only serve while they are off-duty. It will be difficult for these volunteers to fill in the gap of conventional public health system in the longer term. The loss of public confidence in the healthcare system will leave a profoundly negative impact on the medical profession and patients.





Curbing the chaos with tear gas? 89% of interviewees said that this would provoke more people to join the protests

Hundreds of aluminum shells from expended teargas rounds litter the streets after almost every single protest. Photo: Rusty Foulkes





The reality is that 89% of interviewees said that the use of tear gas will drive more people to join the protests. Nearly 92% of citizens believe that using tear gas to curb the chaos would only result in more violent scenes. The police may successfully drive out the rallies one day but there will be more coming out to support the movement the next day. US findings suggest that when the enforcement agencies fail to gain public support, the crowd-control weapons they use against citizens become a symbol of repression. Repression stirs up feelings of oppression. It is not the “shock and awe” deterrence desired by the police. Repressive enforcement usually drives more public resentment that in turn gives rise to more violence.





Confidence cannot be restored by coercive suppression





Over the last few weeks, the police have continuously escalated their tactics. Besides tear gas, six live bullets were fired. The public is beginning to worry if these China-made tear gas canisters are more powerful and harmful than ones from the other countries. In absence of information about the chemical composition of the tear gas, how can the medical professionals prescribe the appropriate treatment for injured people? In late October, there was a suspicious case of gas leakage in Tuen Mun. When people expressed their discontent and asked for the truth, the police responded by more dispersal of tear gas. The approach taken by the government in handling this social crisis clearly departs from the citizens’ demands.





It is anticipated that tear gas and other crowd-control tools will be deployed frequently in the foreseeable future. Even if the police can finally suppress the protest with increased force, the public’s trust in the government, the police force, the Hospital Authority and other public institutions would be hard to rebuild. Those who need to be treated dare not seek treatment within the system. Medical professionals can only help them through voluntary organizations and may be without concrete knowledge of how these injuries should be treated. If this continues, it may well end in widespread systematic collapse in Hong Kong.





A disaster has occurred and it is not difficult to foresee the future developments. Whether the disaster can be avoided all depends on whether the government is willing to prevent the deterioration of this crisis by responding to citizens’ demands.





Source: Mingpao (Click here for the full article)



