While tear gas and pepper spray are chemically different, the best remedy for both is to flush it out of your eyes with water, and to get the chemicals out of your environment, according to Dr. Diane Calello, executive and medical director of the New Jersey Poison Center and an associate professor of emergency medicine at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School.
Tear gas and pepper spray both cause intense burning and irritation of the eyes, nose, mouth, respiratory system and skin, Johnson-Arbor said.
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Flush out chemical irritants like tear gas and pepper spray with water if possible, not milk or baby shampoo combinations, doctors say.
Rinsing your eyes under running shower water can be helpful, too, Johnson-Arbor said, and Calello noted getting rid of all the pepper spray is likely to take more than a small bottle of water unless you’re exposed to only a little bit.
One 2018 study published in the Western Journal of Emergency Medicine found that irrigating people’s skin and eyes with water and baby shampoo provided no better relief from tear gas or pepper spray than water alone.
