3 ms·

I had to go through the gas chamber in basic training, and we were essentially made to remove our masks and breathe some of the tear gas in. Let me tell you: i

I had to go through the gas chamber in basic training, and we were essentially made to remove our masks and breathe some of the tear gas in. Let me tell you: it's not fun. There is no resisting the urge to cough and choke, your eyes water up, and all you can think about is getting out of the cloud. It does have one positive side effect, however: it cleans out your sinuses like nothing else I've seen. :)

gjulianm 13y ago
May I ask what kind of training was that?
- xradionut 13y ago
  Every branch of the service has done tear gas exposure for decades. Speaking from my experience in the service, it sucks. (But it's not as stressful as fire fighting or damage control simulators...)
- ef4 13y ago
  US military recruits are typically exposed to tear gas as part of their training on "NBC" threats (nuclear/biological/chemical). A major point of the exercise is to instill trust in your gas mask and your ability to use it correctly. When I did it, we put on our gas masks, entered a little building full of gas, stood around a bit feeling the tingle on our exposed skin, then one-by-one were told to take off the mask and try to say something (I think it was our name and rank), then run out.
baha_man 13y ago
I heard that some people are pretty much immune to CS gas, the only reference I can find online is here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk%3ACS_gas#Immunity http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk%3ACS_gas#Immunity
- jandrewrogers 13y ago
  People who are repeatedly exposed to CS tend to rapidly build up a tolerance. Anecdotally, this has been observable both in myself and many other people. A large part of the effectiveness is also psychological. When people first experience CS they tend to overreact and experience secondary symptoms not created by the CS. After a couple exposures, you know what to expect and CS becomes more of a nuisance than something to fear. You don't intentionally walk into a cloud of CS but you can kind of shrug it off if you do.

gjulianm 13y ago

May I ask what kind of training was that?

xradionut 13y ago
Every branch of the service has done tear gas exposure for decades. Speaking from my experience in the service, it sucks. (But it's not as stressful as fire fighting or damage control simulators...)
ef4 13y ago
US military recruits are typically exposed to tear gas as part of their training on "NBC" threats (nuclear/biological/chemical). A major point of the exercise is to instill trust in your gas mask and your ability to use it correctly. When I did it, we put on our gas masks, entered a little building full of gas, stood around a bit feeling the tingle on our exposed skin, then one-by-one were told to take off the mask and try to say something (I think it was our name and rank), then run out.

baha_man 13y ago

I heard that some people are pretty much immune to CS gas, the only reference I can find online is here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk%3ACS_gas#Immunity http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk%3ACS_gas#Immunity

jandrewrogers 13y ago
People who are repeatedly exposed to CS tend to rapidly build up a tolerance. Anecdotally, this has been observable both in myself and many other people. A large part of the effectiveness is also psychological. When people first experience CS they tend to overreact and experience secondary symptoms not created by the CS. After a couple exposures, you know what to expect and CS becomes more of a nuisance than something to fear. You don't intentionally walk into a cloud of CS but you can kind of shrug it off if you do.