Hello Chemists. I was wondering what the half-lives are for certain tear gas molecules used in tear gas used by the police. My house was tear gas due to an incident with a neighbor 5 days ago and now it still lingers.

They said that they used CN, OC and CS gas.

CN = (Orthochlorobenzalmalononitrile) OC = (Oleoresin Capsicum) CN = (Chloroacetophenone)

Thanks a lot for your help. Also, if you could note special properties of these molecules, about toxicity, etc, please let me know too :-)

Thank you!

  • ProfessorOwl_PhD [any]
    ·
    11 months ago

    CS gas has a half life of about 110 hours, so nearly 5 days. OC (pepper spray) is allegedly biodegradable, but the only information I could find about it is that there's no known literature on how long it takes to biodegrade. CN gas I can't find any information on a half life at all.

    You really, really want to pay someone to clean it up, but if that's not an option the absolute least you need for cleanup is a full hazmat suit. Everything in your house will need to be thoroughly cleaned, it's not going to dissipate on its own.