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Always bring water. When tear gaz appears, stop breathing, wet a a piece of cloth and start to breath slowly through it. Even when you are use to it, it’s important to don’t take deep breath.
The advantage over a full mask is that you may not annoy by cops in case of frisking.
You may use waterpool glasses too if you follow the previous instruction
Good luck, and fuck the police
Don’t fucking buy Mira products; they’re overpriced Czech surplus. The OM-90 is the Czech designation for Mira’s CM-7M, and you can get them for $90 on eBay, vs. the $450 or so that Mira charges.
Honestly, get yourself an M-40 that’s in good shape, buy a 40mm-to-3M-bayonet adapter, use some 3M P-100 cartridges (you can get them for about $2/ea. when you buy in bulk). P-100 will filter out all particulates–even finer particulates than a HEPA filter or N-95–and will also filter out water- and oil-based aerosols. That covers all riot-control agents, because CN, CS, and OC are all aerosols, and not true gasses. Almost any surplus gas mask that’s been made in the last ~30 years, seals, and uses a 40mm NATO cartridge is going to be just fine for riot-control agents.
If you are really worried about a P-100 filter being insufficient, get a few new old-stock NBC filters. NBC (nuclear, biological, chemical) filters were phased out about 15-20 years ago in favor of CBRN (chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear) filters, but if they haven’t been used, they’ll be absolutely okay for riot agents.
If you wear glasses–and many people do–get a spectacle insert for whatever mask you have. Glasses break the seal, and while you will probably be fine with contacts in, that’s not necessarily a good risk to take. Supposedly the Kris Optical Mag-1 glasses can be worn under a mask without compromising the seal, but I can’t personally attest to that. I think that they’re one of the older styles of BCGs that were issued, but I’m not sure.
Oh, and get GOOD hearing protection. Consider high-end electronic ear muffs, and wearing ear plugs under them. Some places are using LRADs to disperse crowds, and those can wreck your hearing.
What a fucking world we live in
I found myself baffled as to what the hallmarks of a riot even were. I had thought that a crowd being tear gassed in the dead of night might be similar to a mosh pit at a concert, but riddled with fear instead of elation — a crowd pushing and shoving, overcome with heightened emotion. But I found that the people around me, even when they were screaming and throwing eggs and other produce at the feds, would apologize if they even slightly jostled me. I did worry about being trampled one time, while standing next to an underprepared television crew that had come without gas masks and kept panicking throughout the night. When did a gathering turn into a riot? Were riots even real?
Yeah, insightful writing about something that should be vanishingly uncommon.
I also strongly suspect that the mask is not adequate protection against the particulates in tear gas from a health standpoint — I didn’t have a normal period for six months after the 2020 protests.
Used the link to order a Mira mask and NBC-17 filter. No conflict in my area yet, but I’d rather have it and not need it than need it and not have it.
Did Mira used to be Avon?
No. Avon still exists, they have the current contract to make the M-50 gas mask. (Which, BTW, is not compatible with standard NATO CBRN 40mm cartidges.)
Damn, that mask was awesome. Was my favorite mask I ever wore.
The proprietary cartridge design kills it, IMO. It’s like making a super-gucci AR-15, but then it only uses your mags, and your mags cost $150/ea., v. $20 for a Magpul.
(Not fun) fact in german law, the use of “Schutzwaffen” ( means defensive weapons) is illegal at a demonstration, a Schutzwaffe is for example a helmet, shield or gasmask.
The link is for the german wikipedia, because the german law part is not in the english article.
Illegal in the US sense of “for protesters only but fine for LEOs”?
I don’t know for certain but given the fact I’ve seen German riot cops with helmets and shields I’d bet the answer is “yes of course.”
If not they would gas them selves, of course cops are allowed to use gas masks and riot gear.
The one thing the article doesn’t cover is picking filters. Is there just a number, like N95?
Sounds like the mask might be used for paint/varnish fumes while out of lawless Federal officers’ throwing range.
N95 is insufficient. You want a P100 filter cartridge; P100 will filter out oil-based and water-based aerosols, as well as all particulates. They will not filter out true gasses, but, good news!, CN, CS, and OC are all aerosols, not gasses.
Yeah there’s absolutely a rating to look for and N95 is part of that, stateside, you have niosh ratings, you’ll see these wrt industrial ppe, but there are ratings for use with CN and CS gas. My experience with them is the chemical cartridges usually have a p100 filter combined with them for particulate too. Organic Vapour & Acids are easy to get a hold of (Used these when i worked in O&G), I don’t know how well they’d work against teargas unfortunately.
I will 100% recommend north full face, a half mask is probably better than nothing but the full face gives you eye protection too. I didn’t personally like the 3m style masks, but it’s all down to personal preference, just make sure it fits correctly.
3M in particular sells a lot of filters designed for particular industrial chemicals, but which might not do much for tear gas. The 60921 should work.
The Mira CBRN filters are designed for chemical warfare and should also work.
