Bahrain Mirror (exclusive): In the lastmonths, we have been collecting the tear gas canisters that were used againstus by the riot police, had photos of them, read the information on them andrecognised their types and source to show it to the International and the HumanRights organisations. However, the malignant regime changed its methods toprotect itself, as the gases that have been used recently came with noinformation and no source, nothing just blank canisters that sometimes camewith the name of the gas that we know nothing about except for being affected afterinhaling it.

 

At leastsix martyrs have been cited as victims of these gases and many cases ofmiscarriage were caused by these toxic gases [1]. But the regime in Bahrain isstill using it heavily and excessively and kind of playing with it by usingdifferent types and different colours of these toxic gases.

 


MyExperience
Almost 11months have passed while we are being exposed to gases that are being used bythe regime.

 

On 14 Feb 2011in Sitra Island, excessive amount of tear gas were used against the peacefulprotesters, it was like thick white clouds and I was exposed to it personally.That day the gas caused us severe burns inthe eyes and irritation in the skin at the cheeks, but its effects passed awayin few hours.

 

Nowadays, with the continuous protest movement by therevolutionaries after months of attempts to suppress this revolution; Gases camein colours: blue, black and yellow in addition to the whitegas.  Moreover, we know almost nothing about these types of gases neitherabout their effects on us in the long run, but we are living their presentdirect effects.

 

I have been exposed to many types of gases and to the white gason 16 March 2011 during the brutal attack on the demonstrators at the PearlRoundabout and lately during the attack on the mourners on the 3^rd day of mourning of martyrSayed Hashim Saeed 15-years-old in Sitra Island on 4 January 2012. That day Ifelt like I lost sight for few seconds and I was suffocating, I was hardly ableto breathe. Many protesters fell in front of me, not able to breathe with muchof salivation. Me and a friend of mine felt some numbness in our limbs, I feltit in my fingers. My friend felt it in one of his legs where the small gascanisters fell close to him.

 

I have been exposed to the yellow gas on 17 December 2011 duringthe peaceful demonstration titled "Occupy Budaiya Street", one of thegas canisters was exhausting its gas on us for almost a minute before I couldremove it and throw it away from us near the gate of the Country Mall. The gaswas used excessively, some people passed out very fast and some people wereflopping to get away from that spot. When I inhaled that gas I felt severe burnsin my throat, face and eyes, my eyes were tearing a lot, my nose became runnyand I was secreting much saliva from my mouth along with sharp cough whichcontinued for few days. It took a while before I had my natural breathing backafter I get away from the yellow gas and when I washed my hands and face afteran hour when I returned home, I felt a severe burn in the face and arms for awhile. The coughing continued for 2-3 days with some pain and heaviness in mychest and I had a headache that continued until the following day with some sensationof heaviness above the eyes. Moreover, I was like the one who had cold or flufor at least a week and I suffered from pain and disturbances in the stomachand vomited blood on the next day.

 

Calls on Twitter
What I had experienced made me curious to learn more about thesegases that have been used against us day and night. Under our unsafe situationand what have being used against us of internationally forbidden weapons suchas the bird gunshots, we cannot know whether these unknown gases areinternationally allowed or not. That led me to search for more informationabout the direct effects of those gases by learning what people went throughafter they were exposed to them. That might be our only way to learn of the typesof these gases, how legal their usage is, and their effects on the long run.So, I decided to write this report.

 

As the security situation here in Bahrain left me only one wayto make my research which is using twitter to issue my call as follows:"Anyone who has any experience with the coloured toxic gases used by theregime to crack down on the protests these days, please contact me. The topicis important and anyone has information about those gases please email me. (Iexplained that I intended to write a report on these gases).

 

Responses came quickly. Many got excited and startedto email me or sending me their own experiences. I ampresenting some of them below, followed by a conclusion. Ofcourse I am not disclosing the tweeps or referring to anyone who contactedme about their experiences.
 

 
  YellowGas
The Female tweep (M) tells her story of being exposed to theyellow tear gas which has been used a lot and heavily lately in the streets andthe houses.

 

(M) says: " I'll tell you the story of me and my husbandwhen we were exposed to the suffocating gas, It happened at the night ofThursday on 22 December 2011 almost at 9 P.M in Belad Al Qadeem village. Wewent out of the family house and decided to go to our flat in Isa Town. In thebeginning it was a strong smell seemed like the smell of sulfur and I felt burnsin my nose and throat, then in few seconds I vomited. My husband was driving sohe stopped to let me vomit out of the car but I asked him to continue drivingbecause we were suffocating. I looked to his face which was full of tears andwhen we made out to the main street I had a look to the area and it wasblanketed with a huge yellow cloud. I had a surgery in my eyes 3 months ago,the burns in my eyes did not stop even when we reached home and I still havesome pain in my eyes since then".

 

Moreover, the tweep (S) inhaled the yellow gas also on the dayof the peaceful demonstration titled "Occupy Budaiya Street" on 17December 2011 and he says: "The gas was thrown at us heavily in the streetwhich made me and five of my friends feel fatigue and got dizzy. So we turnedto a house but the police mercenaries came again and started throwing andshooting that yellow gas in the house where we are and at its front door whichmade our status even worse than it had been. One of my friends suffered fromasthma and he was the first one among us who vomited blood then we had the sameafter him. Our hands were stiffened sometimes and sometimes we were involuntarilyscratching our heads and this status continued for almost two hours, but ourhands took more time to be in their natural situation again. On the followingday we had strange pain in our stomachs and headache, we could not even sleepand I suffered acute diarrhea but some of my friends suffered constipation!"

 

BlackGas:
Another female tweep sent her experience with the Black Gas and said:"We (My husband, sisters and I) used to participate in the demonstrationscalled by the (Coalition of 14 Feb); we used to be exposed to those toxic gasesa lot and I tell you what we went through in Sar village on the day of theFuneral of martyr Ahmed Al Qattann. While we were trying to extricate a youthfrom the hands of the police mercenaries, they shot us with tear gas, we ran toone of the houses but the door was locked and we tried the back door to escapebut it was also locked which made us stuck in clouds of suffocating gases. Wecould not see each other given the density of the gas, some ladies passed outbut I was struggling to find an open door, my strength collapsed and I feltlike I would pass out. However, the front door of the house suddenly opened andI, barely, could breathe... That black gas was killing us; I could not talk for awhile as I had sharp coughing and pain in my heart. My heartbeats remainedunstable for the whole day and I suffered from difficulty in breathing. I feltthat the ground was not stable and had dizziness for a while. Coughs becameless on the same day but the pain in the heart and the difficulty in breathingcontinued and we (My sisters and I) suffered from headache, diarrhea, felttired, and had skin irritation".

 

 

 

Summary: the above examples were developed for cases directly exposedto the inhalation of those gases, full testimonies are available but theycannot be covered in this report. Below is a table for a summary of the mostimportant testimonies of gas inhaled by people of different areas in Bahrain ona daily basis

 

 

 

Colour of the gas	Method of exposure to the gas	Direct effects
Concentrated white	Open space	Burning in the eye and the cheeks or face, tears.   Burning in the throat and severe asphyxia
	Closed space	shedding tears profusely  feeling itchy in the body especially the face, nose bleeding and the effect will stay for 2 to 3 days ,causes loss of consciousness particularly among kids or elderly people. Usually this type has the least damage and its effects go away quickly (burning in the eye, throat and face, i.e.)
White is less concordat	Open spaces	Burn in the eye and Severe tears, burning in the throat, lack of vision for several seconds when exposed to it
	Closed space	From a close range  for few people cases of a semi-numbness in the fingertips, a large number of people secretion of saliva from the mouth, Kind of compulsion.  Cases of fainting when inhaled near as happened to many in A'ali area when the protesters went to the Royal Court in a demonstration and the attack on Pearl Roundabout on 16/03/2011. (Personal experience)
Yellow	Open space	Close Range: - Burning in the eye, face and even in the body when they are close to it (especially when the body is wet) - Burning and dryness in the throat with frequent coughing - A lot of saliva secretion in some cases - Dizziness, the body is accompanied by fatigue - Breathlessness and fainting for most of those who were exposed to it from a close range - Stiffness in the limbs. In some cases fatigue and fainting. Others - vomited blood after exposure to the gas or felt the desire to vomit. From a Distance: Vomiting blood or coughing up blood for some time, Chest pain and shortness of breath (pain may continue for few days) Cough and phlegm at the other and continuous coughing may stay for several days, runny nose, May cause a nosebleed and then and continued with some even after several days, similar to symptoms of cold in the throat and nose, causing a sort of change in the sound may continue for several days. Pain in the abdomen and stomach disorders (diarrhea in the majority and some feel a kind of constipation); Fatigue the next day ; some collapsed,  and had headaches for several days
	Closed space	-As above, but in most serious and fastest effects where, we got several cases of fainting at the entrance of Country Mall in 12/17/2011
Black	Open space	Severe burn sensation in the throat and face, teary eyes, pain in the chest when inhaled and shortness of breath, its smell is very strong and makes a person feel suffocated quickly. Many people felt dizzy and collapsed, when it was close to them. May cause loss of consciousness if you do not move away from it quickly, you may collapse, suffocate and faint, may cause frequent coughing and difficulty of breathing, severe pain in the chest, and dizziness
	Closed space	Later the effects of the gas (which vary slightly from person to person and depend on the quantity and location): - May continue to cough for several days, chest pain and shortness of breath, some people feel irregular heartbeats for a few days, stomachache, headaches, fatigue lasts for a few days accompanied with sleepy feeling, skin irritation for some

 

 

 

 

 

Red, Blue and.....

 

Because of the novelty of the use of Red and Blue gases, I havenot been able to obtain a number of testimonies. But some suggest that exposureto the blue gas causes shortness of breath quickly and leads to dizziness ifyou smell it, vomiting, and then headache. 


 

There are rare testimonies of exposure to the red gas, and thereare fears of it being a toxic one especially after checking out with concernedsites (2)

 

Still, the suffocating gases that the security forces in Bahrainthrow at the citizens have multiple colours and create clouds of differentcolours, however they are not the colours of joy or spring. Those colours donot create life, but different kinds of imminent or delayed deaths. We arewaiting for a specialised authority to study what the gas daily sessions holdof poisons of death.

 

 

 

 

Footnotes: 



1. Bahrain Center for Human Rights: abortions as a result of excessive use of tear gas and violence http://bahrainrights.hopto.org/ar/node/4932
   
   
2. Research for multiple gases, and similar symptoms in the following pages:
   http://www.arab-oil-naturalgas.com/articles/safety/articleS_16.htm
   
   
3. CS: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CS_gas
4. CR: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CR_gas
5. CN: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CN_gas
6. General info:
   http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/833315-overview#showalldia.org/wiki/Phenacyl_chloride