Tear gas is a chemical weapon. The Chemical Weapons Convention forbids its use as a method of warfare, but permits it for "domestic riot control purposes." This loophole must be closed.
Tear gas is a poison. It can kill people who have asthma or other respiratory illnesses. It can cause pregnant people to miscarry. It leaves poisonous residue on skin and clothes, and on streets and buildings. It can soak into home furnishings and coat vegetable gardens. It harms the most vulnerable people in the community. Yet militarized police use it in residential neighborhoods without concern for the residents' health and well-being.
We urge the Obama Administration to ban the use of chemical weapons by police and military forces in the United States.