Watered down milk of magnesia or Pepto is a great solution. Well used in past protests.
The issue with milk, according to the ophtalmologist’s video, is that when you got pepper sprayed there’s a chance your cornea has been damaged, so that milk can give you an infection.
Milk of Magnesia is not dairy milk. It’s an over the counter medication with antacid properties similar to Pepto bismol. Although taken orally they are not used in all the same instances.
Ah true, I misread
There’s been a few studies on this, and most of the supposed remedies have been found to be little or no more effective than just rinsing with water or saline.
That said, in theory, I feel like baby shampoo is probably a pretty good bet, it makes sense on paper. Most pepper sprays are oil-based, soap/shampoo is a surfactant so it helps to rinse out those oily substances with water, and baby shampoo in particular is non-irritating to the eyes.
There’s a few purpose-made products for this, I’ve seen a few recommendations for sudecon wipes from first-responder types. I have no recommendations about how to best get your hands on those sorts of products in case you’re worried about leaving a paper trail.
For my own personal kit (that I just try to keep well-stacked for any eventuality, I have pepper spray on my dog’s leash so I figured I should know what to do if I even accidentally mace myself) I’ve settled on sterile saline eye wash and baby shampoo. Haven’t had to use it yet, so I can’t attest to the effectiveness, but I figure it’s gotta be better than nothing
And it makes enough sense on paper that I figure if nothing else maybe I’ll be able to placebo effect myself into believing it did something.
If the stuff is oil based, dousing your face with cream, which is full of oil would get the crap out of your eyes faster, then you douse with water to disperse what’s left of the oil/lipid. Edit: Just did some more reading and milk cream is not better as it can spoil and introduce bacteria into your eyes.
I knew just from the mention of shampoo what video would be referenced.
Helpful!
A 50/50 mix of Maalox antacid and saline also does well
If a gas grenade lands near you, cover it with a traffic cone and pour water down the hole on top. Do NOT try to pick it up unless you’re wearing an oven mit or silicone grill glove. Kicking it is fine though.
