Tear gas from the near-nightly sieges in Portland may be trickling into the Willamette River, officials fear. Police in Portland peppered protesters with tear gas on Monday as they assembled outside of a police station, following a weekend of ongoing demonstrations against police racism and in favor of defunding the police. Their actions continue a history of Portland police using tear gas on demonstrators tracing as far back as May. Portland made headlines last month after federal law enforcement began detaining protesters, even though it was unclear if all of those detained had been involved in illegal activity. Protesters and activists alike are fearful for the long-term effects of being exposed to chemical weapons. As the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality noted previously, there is no scientific precedent for the long-term exposure of tear gas on humans, as it is not meant to be used often. And the amount of the caustic gas, reportedly the variant known as CS gas (which one Portland police official insisted was different than tear gas), sprayed in downtown Portland is similarly unusual — nearly every night since the week of George Floyd’s death on May 25, tear gas has coated the sidewalks and drains.
via< salon: So much tear gas has been sprayed on Portland protesters that officials fear it’s polluted the water