Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Chemical Weapons And Their Unforeseen Impact On Health And The Environment, Alexandra Chen

Seattle Journal of Technology, Environmental & Innovation Law

The May 2020 police murder of George Floyd catalyzed a racial reckoning in the United States that saw millions of people take to the streets to protest police brutality against people of color. In following months, law enforcement used massive amounts of "less-lethal" chemical weapons against protesters in cities across the country. Despite widespread use of chemical weapons by police agencies and mounting evidence of related environmental and health harms, the federal government does not regulate the use nor the manufacture of chemical weapons. Chemical weapons contain toxic ingredients such as hexavalent chromium, lead salts, and methylene chloride, which are …