Conference tallis::celt

1082.0. "British use of CS Gas in northen Ireland" by EPIK::HOLOHAN () Thu Jun 25 1992 12:25

  British Use of CS Gas in Northern Ireland
    by Stephanie Finucane

Late 1969 the Scarman Tribunal investigated the conduct of the RUC and B
Specials during August 1969 and not only concluded that the RUC used
firearms indiscriminately, but also accused the B Specials of
indiscipline.  That same year the Hunt Commission investigated the RUC
and the B Specials, recommending that the RUC be relieved of all
military duties, restricting its role to intelligence gathering, and
that the B Specials be disbanded.  Left and right, government
investigations were castigating the "law enforcers" for their treatment
of the Irish people.

Why?  Civilian injuries received in August 1969, in particular, were
extraordinary, resulting from more than mere spontaneous RUC abuse.
They were the product of planned and organized "riot control" tactics
that crossed the line of prevention into the zone of outright brutality.
One of these tactics was the prominent use of CS gas by the RUC as a
method of "crowd dispersal" - which proved to be a violent means of
enforcing order, clearly depicting the overall violent intent behind
"British justice".

CS gas was first used in northern Ireland shortly after midnight on
August 12, 1969 when the RUC charged into the Bogside, County Derry, to
hose down nationalists defending their neighborhood.  For the next 36
hours the RUC, wearing protective gear and gas masks, indiscriminately
doused nationalists.  Official records show that 1,091 cartridges, each
containing 12.5 grams of gas, and 14 grenades, each containing 50 grams
of the gas, were fired (McClean, R. The Road to Bloody Sunday).

Dr. Raymond McClean, who attended many of the victims, inquired at the
nearby RUC Barracks as to the nature of the CS gas and its effects.  A
medical officer assured him that the gas was absolutely safe.  However,
McClean witnessed that the gas not only caused "severe irritation and
watering of the eyes, but massive irritation and constriction of
breathing... (and) in many cases marked nausea and vomiting."  As Dr.
McClean writes in his book, The Road to Bloody Sunday, the horror show
did not end there: "...now a new type of casualty appeared, this being
rioters who had been hit at close range by the actual gas canister
itself... One patient had just been brought in who had been hit in the
face by a gas canister.  I lifted his nose and the entire organ was
almost separated from the rest of his face and the bony structure
below."

Dr. McClean began to do some research, unable to accept the attitude of
the British medical officer after seeing the realities of the gas
victims.  He discovered that CS gas is a chemical called
"ortho-chlorobenzal-malononitrile" and, upon breaking down its
structure, uncovered its lethal potential.  Broken down, CS gas is
comprised of chlorobenzene and malonic acid.  McClean, an "industrial
medical officer who was working full-time on a chemical plant and whose
job it was to monitor the effects of chemical agents on human beings,"
knew that "chlorobenzene was a well known industrial poison which could
cause damage to the brain, the liver and the kidneys."  He had even
"read reports of malonic acid causing fatalities in American industrial
plants ... (and) a subsequent editorial in the British Medical Journal
referred to reports of brain, liver and kidney damage following exposure
to CS."  Also, the Porton Down research team had published a report on
how the use of CS gas on laboratory rats causes liver damage.  Thus,
information was available to the British that clearly demonstrated the
harmful potential of CS gas.  McClean got hold of the Report and
prepared a list of questions which he presented to the British
government, "who had given this large amount of CS gas to the RUC and
therefore carried the prime responsibility."  He dealt with Home
Secretary James Callaghan who sent a reply two and a half months later
which was "evasive and non-constructive as regards the CS gas... (but
stated) that the RUC were not properly instructed beforehand in the use
of such massive quantities of potentially lethal chemical."  
  McClean was concerned about the effects of CS gas not only on healthy
individuals, but on persons already suffering from pre-existing
bronchitis, asthma, liver and kidney disease, or epilepsy - to whom
exposure could be lethal.  This is what makes the use of CS gas most
criminal and negligent.
  The Himsworth enquiry was set up on August 30, 1969 to investigate the
use of CS gas in the Bogside on august 13 and 14.  During a meeting
between Sir Harold Himsworth, his investigators, local doctors, and
people who had been exposed to the CS gas, Dr. McClean raised the
question of the potential of liver and kidney damage, quoting from the
Porton Down research work.  Himsworth merely responded: "Your remarks
are noted," and later invited McClean to dinner at the Broomhill Hotel,
giving him "some fatherly advice about prudence, and my future medical
career."  During dinner, Himsworth told McClean that he "kept a rougues
gallery" in his office in London where he had pictures of persons who
"were and embarasment to his department.  He told me that my photograph
was in his gallery."
  Needless to say, the eventual publication of the Himsworth Report
covered up the potential toxicity of CS gas in the Bogside in order to
hide the obvious negligence and irresponsibility on the part of the
British government in authorizing its use.  The Report left out the
questions McClean raised about liver and kidney damage and never
referred to the Porton Down research.  Nor did it record that one of the
participating doctors was employed full-time to monitor the effects of
chemicals on human beings.
  The Report did recommend, however, that standards be introduced to
control the use of riot control agents like CS gas similar to standards
used for new drugs on the market.  At the time of publication of
McClean's book, 1983, he noted: "it is quite interesting ... that the
British government has not yet moved on this recommendation of the
investigation team which they appointed."  In 1992, Britain still has
done nothing.
  The grossness of the situation is the fact that the British government
armed the RUC with a toxic agent virtually uninvestigated by the British
government.  In other words, Britain was grossly negligent in
authorizing the use of such a toxic chemical - which doesn't say much at
all for the rest of Britain's conduct concerning the well being of the
people of northern Ireland.
 [Ed. note: In 1970 CS gas was supplemented by 5&3/4" X 1&1/2", 5&1/4
ounce rubber bullets, which were soon replaced by the harder, more
accurate plastic bullet of slightly shorter length.]