Abstract

Although a number of studies have examined health effects to individuals at protest events who are exposed to tear gas and chemical irritants, few studies examine risks to the community. This study examines potential community, worker, and bystander risk from State deployment of chemical weapons at racial-justice protests in four US cities by increasingly-militarized police forces. The authors identified businesses and services at various distances from chemical weapons deployment zones, and discuss how those who live and work adjacent to these zones are at higher risk for social, economic, and health effects from State use of chemical weapons at racial justice protests, whereby State use of chemical weapons sustains and potentially accelerates structural violence in already-marginalized communities.