Think back to the year 2005. Gay marriage was legal in Canada. Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans. YouTube was founded. There were blackouts. And a movie called V For Vendetta came out. Why is that relevant? V For Vendetta was the pop-culture phenomenon that gave us the quote “people should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people.” 15 years later, people are still afraid of their governments. Upsettingly, some participants in the Seattle protests have good reason to be afraid. The tear gas they were being exposed to may be wreaking havoc on their menstrual cycles. 

Tear Gas And The Seattle Protests

Jessi Murray is 32 years old. Although Murray protested on other occasions, her exposure didn’t occur on any of those occasions. Instead, the chemical gas leaked into her apartment as the cops battled protestors eight blocks away. A week later, it happened again. A week after that, she got her period. Usually, that wouldn’t cause alarm. But, as Murray explains, “I either, like, don’t have a cycle or it’s been really long.” Her birth control implant causes the lack of a menstrual cycle. Unfortunately, her situation got even more unusual. In the space of a month, she had three cycles. “It just struck me as weird that I had these kind of quick periods in a row,” says Murray. Over a dozen other women told the local Seattle news station they had similar issues, including “heavy bleeding, agonizing cramps, and menstruating for the first time after a gender transition.” (1)

Seattle Protests–Worse Than War?

This type of tear gas is called chlorobenzylidenemalononitrile (CS) gas. The Chemical Weapons Convention banned CS gas from use in war since 1997. Incredibly, this is the gas the United States chooses to use on its own citizens. In 2011, Chile banned the use of CS gas by law enforcement on protestors, after research suggested it may cause miscarriages. Citizens of Ohio, which has had similar protests to Seattle, are also concerned. Pro-Choice Ohio tweeted out: “Tear gas has been known to cause miscarriages & is banned in under the Geneva Convention. Local LE agencies & the Ohio Nat’l Guard have been using tear gas against our communities throughout Ohio this past week.” They ask for people to sign a petition banning the gas for use on the public. The Center for Disease Control says that high exposure to CS gas can result in death–either immediately, or longer-term. (2, 3)

More Stories Of Horror

Daniel Grossman is an OBGYN professor at the University of California, San Francisco. He says there isn’t enough research done to say definitively that the gas is responsible for miscarriages or frequent, extreme periods. “The reality is these substances haven’t been well-studied,” he says. But, in his opinion, the lack of research doesn’t mean it’s okay to use. “The bottom line is they’re weapons of war, and they’re designed to harm people’s bodies. As a medical provider, I can’t condone their use on anyone.” 

Professor of Religion, Laurel Zwissler had similar experiences after being tear-gassed in Quebec in 2001. She asked the activist community for advice. They told her “tear gas does that.”

Similarly, after protestors in Bahrain were tear-gassed in 2001, there was a surge in miscarriages. “We believe the miscarriage rate has increased,” said a nurse at the time, “although there is no quantitative evidence.” (4)

Seattle Mayor Bans Gas Use At Protests

On Friday, June 5th, 2020, Mayor Jenny Durkan held a press conference. Many groups in Seattle had raised concerns with the city about the dangerous effects of the gas. “After hearing concerns about the use of CS gas for crowd control purposes earlier this week … we decided we were going to suspend its use for 30 days,”  said Chief of Police, Carmen Best. However, members of the SWAT team can keep using the CS gas, with her permission, says Best. Jessi Murray, the Seattle woman who was exposed to the gas in her apartment, said her second exposure occurred on June 8th–after the ban.
The Martin Luther King Jr. County Labor Council said that the Seattle police force must acknowledge that there is systemic racism in policing, otherwise they will face expulsion from the group, which includes over 150 unions and 100,000 individuals. (1, 5)