Nearly 30 children and one adult fell ill last week when a plume of tear gas used during a police training exercise drifted toward a nearby elementary school in San Bruno, California, authorities said.
In a report released Friday, the San Francisco Sheriff’s Office said wind and lack of fog allowed the tear gas cloud to drift less than a half-mile to Portola Elementary School on May 21.
“Usually, conditions are less windy and foggy, so water droplets from the fog weigh down the (tear gas),” the report said, “which could explain why this exposure was an unprecedented event in 20 years of history (of the department).
At the time of the incident, nearly 30 students at the school reported symptoms including coughing, watery eyes, wheezing and difficulty breathing, said Matthew Duffy, superintendent of the San Bruno Park School District. There have also been reports of vomiting and skin rashes.
“More than a week later, some students are still suffering the harmful effects of exposure to the tear gas and pepper spray in the air that day,” Duffy said. “It is now well established that some families required emergency medical assistance to support their children who were suffering from the effects of gases in the air. »
The San Francisco Sheriff’s Office said the May 21 crowd control exercise took place in an isolated area of the San Francisco County Jail in San Bruno, less than a mile from the school Portola primary. The ministry plans to release the results of its investigation soon.
(San Francisco Sheriff’s Office via Google Satellite)
The sheriff’s office, which oversaw the crowd control exercise and opened an investigation into the incident, has since apologized to students and their families as well as faculty. Although the department informed San Bruno police and firefighters about the training exercise, it said it plans to also send alerts to residents in the future.
But Duffy said the district would send an “official letter” to sheriff’s officials requesting a halt to all “gas-related” training at the facility.
Parents were further distressed this week when the San Francisco Chronicle reported that some chemical canisters used in the training exercise dated back to the 1960s.
Tara Moriarty, a spokeswoman for the sheriff’s office, said a preliminary investigation into the incident revealed that the cartridges used by the UC Berkeley Police Department for training did not have an expiration tab.
“We believe, however, that these cartridges have been removed from storage,” Moriarty said.
She did not say how long the cartridges had been in storage.
She said it was common for law enforcement to use stored products for training exercises and that “there appears to be no greater health risk than using the same product recently made”.
But experts say few studies have been done on the long-term health and environmental effects of exposure to tear gas.
Sven Jordt, associate professor of anesthesiology, pharmacology and cancer biology at Duke University School of Medicine, said most research studies were conducted in the 1960s and 1970s and excluded groups such as women, children and the elderly, including those with health problems.
He said a few studies have been done in recent years, including those by the military, showing that long exposure to tear gas can have a variety of adverse health effects, including respiratory tract damage, respiratory problems, reproductive health and physical and psychological problems.
But Jordt said there are virtually no studies on expired tear gas canisters. and if there had been, they would have been carried out by companies manufacturing the gas.
Jordt said a U.S. Army study looked at toxic byproducts that form when cartridges are burned and I found a few that were concerning.
“When these cartridges expire, more of these byproducts are expected to form,” he said. “That’s why there’s an expiration date.”
Jordt said the children’s vomiting was a sign of serious exposure to tear gas.
“This doesn’t usually happen to protesters,” he said. “They must have been in pretty significant distress.”
The two-hour multi-agency crowd control training course began at 12:45 p.m. and ended in a shipping container in a secluded area of the San Francisco County Jail in San Bruno, according to the department report. At that time, winds were 19 km/h and increased to 26 km/h by 3:45 p.m.
During the training exercise, officers deployed tear gas and pepper spray inside the structure.
The San Francisco Sheriff’s Office said the May 21 crowd control exercise took place in an isolated area of the San Francisco County Jail in San Bruno, less than a mile from the school Portola primary. The ministry plans to release the results of its investigation soon.
(San Francisco Sheriff’s Office c)
But the tear gas cloud did not stay inside the structure, but drifted towards the neighboring elementary school.
Moriarty said after the incident the sheriff’s office suspended all future training exercises to review its practices to ensure the community was not in danger.
The Bay Area Air Quality Management District and San Mateo County Environmental Health Services said in separate statements that they were each investigating the incident.
“While there is no indication of ongoing environmental hazards at the site or in the surrounding area,” the Department of Health wrote, “the investigation will determine whether all reporting requirements to the appropriate agencies were complied with after the incident and whether appropriate contingency plans were in place to mitigate any release.
Since the incident, Duffy said, the school district has been washing exterior areas of campus as a safety precaution. School officials also continue to collect health information from students and adults affected that day. The district also held a public meeting with Sheriff Paul Miyamoto to address community concerns.
“We will also write an official letter to the SF Sheriff’s Department requesting an immediate end to all gas-related training at the facility,” Duffy said. “We appreciate the time the SF Sheriff’s Department has spent understanding the events of that day, and we look forward to a partnership that will shine a light on any inappropriate actions taken as well as the steps needed to remedy the situation.”
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