{"id":974,"date":"2024-04-22T18:36:14","date_gmt":"2024-04-22T16:36:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gazlacrymo.fr\/?p=974"},"modified":"2024-04-22T18:36:14","modified_gmt":"2024-04-22T16:36:14","slug":"alexander-samuel-the-man-who-investigates-tear-gas-used-against-yellow-vests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alexandersreng.duckdns.org\/lacrymo\/2024\/04\/22\/alexander-samuel-the-man-who-investigates-tear-gas-used-against-yellow-vests\/","title":{"rendered":"Alexander Samuel, the man who investigates tear gas used against \u201cyellow vests\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"\/
Alexander, at a national yellow vest protest in Montpellier. (\u00a9Xavier Malafosse\/Sipa Press \/ Xavier Malafosse) <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

PhD in biology, Alexander Samuel investigates dangers of tear gas, used massively in France against \u201cyellow vests\u201d. His method : entering in the tear gas cloud and analyzing blood and urine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Emmanuelle Anizon<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Published on July 24th 2019 at 2.00 p.m.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We already saw him, multiple\ntimes, going into the white cloud and coming out minutes later, his long\nredhead mane in a hot mess, scarlet eyes and face, crying, coughing, tottering\nand almost fainting. Alexander Samuel, 34 years old, PhD in molecular biology,\nmaths teacher in a public professional high school in Grasse, France, and\nphilosophy dabster, would never have imagined breathing voluntarily tear gas in\nthe middle of demonstrations. Neither crossing France with tubes of blood and\nurine in his car trunk, like a drug dealer, looking for a lab which could\naccept his cargo. Even less being convened by French justice for \u201cendangering\npeople\u2019s live\u201d. Him, whose only assumed violence consists of yelling regularly\ninto a microphone, surrounded by his metal bandmates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alexander engaged by accident,\non March 23rd<\/sup> 2019. On that day, the \u201cpolitically very left wing tending\u201d<\/em> teacher comes as an \u201cobserver\u201d <\/em>to a \u201cyellow vest\u201d protest in\nNice. He gets in touch with SOS UN, who are inventorying police brutality. \u201cWhen I told them I was PhD in biology, they\nasked me if I could help them analyze the tear gas effects. They described me\nnumerous symptoms : stomach ache, nausea, vomiting, muscle aches, severe\nmigraines, but also loss of consciousness, pulmonary problems, heart problems,\nliver problems … \u201cYellow vests\u201d had been hospitalized. They evoked potential\ncyanide poisonings. Cyanide ! I thought they were nuts ! But since there were\nmany testimonies, I decided to dig it\u2026\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alexander Samuel, PhD in biology, experimenting during\na \u00ab yellow vest \u00bb protest in Paris. (Bruno\nCoutier pour \u00ab l\u2019Obs \u00bb)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alex loves to dig. Already at\nthe University of Nice, the brilliant PhD student half French half German had\nstood out for his propension to put his obstinate nose into affairs – misappropriation\nof subsidy, syndicate corruption, and other favoritism. \u201cAlex is a researcher who finds,<\/em> testifies Guillaume, a former\ncomrade back in time. He accumulated\nevidences, gathered documents, recorded conversations. <\/em>He combined methods of\nan investigator and a scientist\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The teacher immersed himself into\n\u201cliterature\u201d, as scientists say, reading everything that got published on the\nsubject in scientific papers. And he methodically reports on his website<\/a>. He discovers that \u201cCS\u201d gas used by police officers does not directly\ncontain cyanide, but that one of its components, malonitrile, is metabolized\ninto cyanide in the human body.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A public health issue<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

One can endure cyanide at low\nlevels : smokers, people who eat cabbage, almonds or cassava. At higher doses,\ncyanide can cause hypoxia, lack of oxygen. It can kill in some cases, even if\nit did not happen yet in France. Alex explains :<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe person who got gassed endures some kind of\nstrangulation. What is the health consequence of being strangled once a week ?\nWe are told that tear gas are not dangerous, but we don\u2019t know the long term\nhealth effects.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The researcher spends days and\nnights on what he considers as \u201ca public\nhealth issue : tear gas used nowadays massively by police forces, and not only\non \u201cyellow vests\u201d : <\/em>the \u201cpont de Sully\u201d ecologists<\/em><\/a>, the young people\nat the music fest party in Nantes and people or businesses close to the\ndemonstrations, all were exposed to tear gas. And even policemen, who are the\nfirst exposed !<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most of the time, they wear\ngas masks protecting them, but on June 28th<\/sup>, on the Sully bridge<\/a>, a commander lost\nconsciousness because of tear gas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read also : \u00ab O\u00f9 est Steve ? \u00bb, voil\u00e0 LA question<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cyanide disappears in less\nthan thirty minutes after tear gas exposure. But it leaves a marker in the\nbody, thiocyanate, which can be detected during a few weeks after exposure. \u201cI saw some \u201cyellow vest\u201d analysis results\ntwice or even three times higher than normal values !\u201d <\/em>says Alex, who then\ncontacts many toxicologists, doctors, scientists in France and abroad.\nReactions are contrasted, some tell him he is totally wrong, like Jean-Marc\nSapori, from the antipoison center in Lyon, and some encourage him to go on his\n\u201cremarkable\u201d<\/em> work like Andr\u00e9 Picot,\npresident of the Toxicology \u2013 Chemistry association, others even tell him <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBe careful, you are addressing a too dangerous\nsubject\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

He calls a lot, and he gets\ncalled ore and more. A secret agent wants to give him confidential documents\nabout tear gas victims during the Algerian war. Dozens of \u201cyellow vests\u201d want\nto testify, and send him their results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are compiling their symptoms in a table, and we\nnotice some new weird symptoms. For instance, many women, even menopaused, are\nhaving heavy menstrual bleeding\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A doctor from the University\nMedical Center of Lyon writes him about a patient, gased multiple times, having\na heavy liver disease from unknown cause\n: \u201cI wonder if that could explain his pathology\u201d she<\/em> says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How to prove the link between pathology and tear gas ?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

What should we answer\u00a0? How could we prove irrefutably that link ? Since health authorities don\u2019t address the issue and the interior ministry repeats \u201cMove along, nothing to see\u201d,<\/em> Alex, three doctors \u2013 Renaud, anesthesiologist resuscitator, Josyane, generalist and Christiane, ophthalmologist -, nurses and some \u201cyellow vests\u201d decided to do blood uptake directly on demonstration site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Christiane, ophtalmologist, member of Alex\u2019s team.(\u00a9Xavier Malafosse\/Sipa Press) <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

During his research, Alex\nfound a Swiss company, Cyanoguard, selling kits to detect instant cyanide\nlevels in blood : \u201cIt works like a\nbreathalyzer. If the color turns purple, there is a dangerous level of cyanide.\nThey are very serious, they published in the excellent journal of the Royal\nSociety of Chemistry and FBI uses their tools!\u201d<\/em>. Alex and the doctors buy\nten kits, 15\u20ac each, and plan to send some other blood samples to a laboratory\nto make the classical thiocyanate analysis : \u201cCombining both results, the reliability of our results will be\nreinforced\u201d<\/em>. And that\u2019s how, on Saturday April 20th<\/sup> in Paris,\n\u201cyellow vests\u201d could see, in the middle of the smokes, spitting,  flashball shots and crowd movement, a little\ngroup equipped with helmets, glasses, syringes and tubes to do blood uptake on\nthe pavement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Results were deceiving :\ncolor change with cyanokit was difficult to interpret. \u201cCyanoguard told us\n\u201cit\u2019s positive\u201d but I wasn\u2019t sure\u201d. Other surprise : the thiocyanate\nresults, analyzed by the only French lab performing them in Lyon came back\nnegative. \u201cEven for smokers, which is impossible ! \u00bb says Alex\nsniggering. He often sniggers, giggling and narrowing his nose, like kids do.\nThe teacher does not want to believe that those results are being faked\nvoluntarily, but he thinks it would be appropriate to perform new analysis\nabroad in foreign \u201cindependent\u201d<\/em> labs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Doctors are presented like murderers<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On May 1st<\/sup>, during\na very agitated demonstration in Paris, the little group backslides, this time\nin a building lobby, behind closed doors. \u201cYellow vests were waiting outside to\nduff us up\u201d. The group was worried. In a background interior war inside SOS UN,\nAlex and the doctors left, a controversy started. Videos from blood uptakes were circulating on\nsocial networks<\/a> where doctors were presented as murderers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read also : On a suivi des\n\u00ab gilets jaunes \u00bb devenus black blocs<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Medias relay words from a \u201cyellow vest\u201d whose blood got collected, accusing the team for having abused of her weakness; the council of the Order of Doctors, asked about it, explains that it is not forbidden to do a blood uptake in the street, but it has to follow certain conditions. \u201cOur blood uptakes were done respecting all security conditions, and everyone who gave his blood signed an informed consent\u201d<\/em> assure the three doctors from the team. A preliminary investigation is opened. At Alex\u2019s high school, the director received messages calling him \u201cilluminated\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
The team is doing blood analysis at the first floor of a Montpellier fastfood turned into a clandestine field hospital. (\u00a9Xavier Malafosse\/Sipa Press \/ Xavier Malafosse <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

With this tempest, some in the\ngroupe got scared and gave up. Not Alex, who decided to start from scratch with\na reckless kernel of his team. They are reproached taking blood from others ?\nThey will take their own blood. Not in the streets, but in the first floor of a\nfast-food in Montpellier, transformed into a clandestine field hospital (with\nthe complicity and help of the manager, a \u201cyellow vest\u201d supporter\u201d). That day,\n\u201cl\u2019Obs\u201d was present, and the maker of the cyanokits too, he came in person to\nsupervise the operation. This time, the cyanide level is quantified. Alex\nanalyses :<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are passing from a 0 or 0,1 mg\/l value before tear\ngas exposure to 0,7 mg\/l, the dangerousness threshold being at 0,5mg\/l. It\u2019s\nthe sign that cyanide and tear gas are linked !\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

But for toxicologists, the\nnumbers from that non homologated kit will not be an official evidence. Alex\nwent in person to a prestigious Belgian university to analyse the thiocyanate\nlevels of the blood samples. 24 hours driving. The professors, very interested,\nreceived him for a long time but their laboratory declared itself incompetent. \u201cThey do not want to get involved, they know\nthe French state will be confronting them\u201d<\/em> interprets Alex. Fear or not, he\nhad to look somewhere else. Germans hesitated, sent him to a British lab which\naccepted. But when the tubes arrives, it was too late : \u201cPff\u2026 they are hemolyzed\u201d,<\/em> sighs Alex. Translate\nit : dated. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

They risk correctional court<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The series continued, but we\nwill pass the episodes. We will just note a mass spectrometry analysis with\ndistribution of urine collection pots to \u201cyellow vests\u201d. \u201cThey are very\nmistrustful. We collected only two samples, mine included\u201d confesses Alex. Two,\nit\u2019s very few. But, for 50\u20ac each analysis, he couldn\u2019t have paid much of them\nanyways. Including cyanokits, sending costs, analysis costs, lawyers, car\ntransport, the teacher says he paid about 5000\u20ac, a big part of what he spared\nfor his installation work in his new apartment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He tells it with his\nunchangeable smile, nose and eyes narrowed. He says he doesn\u2019t care. What he\ncares more about, is this preliminary investigation opened for \u201cendangering\npeople\u2019s lives\u201d and \u201cprohibited interventional research\u201d. Beginning of July,\nhimself and three doctors got convoked by justice and thoroughly interrogated.\nThey risk correctional court. They should quit ? Why go on in such a mess of\nhassles ? \u201cWe will not drop it until a serious epidemiologic study starts\u201d.\nWith the three doctors, Alex will call the High Authority of Health. Until\nthen, he goes on digging.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

About tear gas<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tear gas is a\nchemical compound causing eye and respiratory irritations. Like every chemical\nweapon, its usage is forbidden in the context of armed conflict by the\ninternational convention of Geneve (1993). Paradoxically it does not apply\npublic order maintenance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are\ndifferent kinds of gases. In France, police uses CS (chlorobenzylidene\nmalononitrile) more and more massively, like the demonstrations showed it\nduring the past years. The dangerousness of those gases is proportional to\ntheir concentration and depends on the conditions of their usage. Officially it\nis not lethal, but deaths have been reported by its usage in closed rooms, like\nduring the Waco siege 1993 in the United States, or in Egypt and in Bahrein\nduring population uprising.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In France, \u00ab CS concentration in grenades is 10%\u201d tells us the general\ndirection of the police, precising \u201cIt has been over 20 years that we are using\nthis gas, if it was dangerous, we would have been the first victims, and police\nsyndicates would have denounced it\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Emmanuelle Anizon<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

PhD in biology, Alexander Samuel investigates dangers of tear gas, used massively in France against \u201cyellow vests\u201d. His method : entering in the tear gas cloud and analyzing blood and urine. By Emmanuelle Anizon Published on July 24th 2019 at 2.00 p.m. We already saw him, multiple times, going into the white cloud and coming out minutes … Continuer la lecture de Alexander Samuel, the man who investigates tear gas used against \u201cyellow vests\u201d<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-974","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-non-classe-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alexandersreng.duckdns.org\/lacrymo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/974","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alexandersreng.duckdns.org\/lacrymo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alexandersreng.duckdns.org\/lacrymo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alexandersreng.duckdns.org\/lacrymo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alexandersreng.duckdns.org\/lacrymo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=974"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/alexandersreng.duckdns.org\/lacrymo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/974\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1526,"href":"https:\/\/alexandersreng.duckdns.org\/lacrymo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/974\/revisions\/1526"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alexandersreng.duckdns.org\/lacrymo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=974"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alexandersreng.duckdns.org\/lacrymo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=974"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alexandersreng.duckdns.org\/lacrymo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=974"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}