Use and management of crowd control agents
Henrietta Wheeler Information Specialist, National Poisons Information Service (London) and Chemical Incident Response Service
Henrietta Wheeler discusses the use and management of exposure to crowd control agents in the accident and emergency department
INTRODUCTION
Crowd control agents are designed to have an immediate effect and not to create serious injuries or to kill. They are used to immediately incapacitate those exposed. The first crowd control agent, ethyl bromoacetate, was used in Paris in 1912 (Marts et al 1996). The most common agents used today are CN, CR and CS, as shown in Table 1. CR is the most recently developed agent but has rarely been used. There arc many previously used agents that are no longer employed due to their toxicity. However they may be used as chemical warfare agents.
Emergency Nurse.
5, 9, 18-21.
doi: 10.7748/en.5.9.18.s17
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