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Indian Military To Use Hot Chili Pepper Grenades

Posted by samzenpus on from the now-that's-a-spicy-grenade dept.

Dr_Ken writes "According to this news story in Ananova, the Indian Defense Ministry is looking into a cheaper and simpler form of tear gas agent for riot dispersal and crowd control. From the article: 'Defense researchers say the idea is to replace explosives in small hand grenades with a certain variety of red chili to immobilize people without killing them, reports the BBC. The chili, known as Bhut Jolokia, is said to be 1,000 times hotter than commonly used kitchen chili. Probably much cheaper to fabricate than conventional CN or CS gases and way less toxic, too.'"

10 comments

  1. test by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    probably tastier too

  2. Red Hot Chili Boom? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Wait a sec... A spicy grenade in India? Do ya think anyone is going to notice?

  3. Give it away now by stalky14 · · Score: 1

    Dissolves all shirts within blast radius.

    1. Re:Give it away now by masmullin · · Score: 1

      When your hit with this chilli gas you have to ... do a little dance and then you drink a little watah!

  4. New menu item by sprior · · Score: 2, Funny

    Coming to the menu soon - bomb vindaloo...

  5. Less toxic? by Ungrounded+Lightning · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Where does the poster get the idea that the active ingredients in the pepper are less toxic than those in the more traditional tear gasses / "pepper" spray?

    Perhaps they are, perhaps they aren't. Perhaps the peppers are MUCH more toxic than the tear gas agents - to people who haven't built up the production of detoxification enzymes that pepper eaters do, or to people exposed in other tissues (like eyes, skin, and lungs) than those the pepper normally contacts when eaten.

    Until there is research to indicate that the peppers are less toxic than the teargas agents to ordinary, non-acclimatized people, a lower toxicity should not be claimed.

    --
    Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
    1. Re:Less toxic? by timmarhy · · Score: 1
      interestingly you appear to stumble onto a point -Capsaicin appears to have a lower LD50 requirement than traditional tear gas agents, meaning it is in fact more toxic. this appears to be yet another example of the "it's natural so it must not be harmful" crowd getting it wrong

      i don't think being a big curry eater is going to save you one bit though, that's a little silly.

      --
      If you mod me down, I will become more powerful than you can imagine....
    2. Re:Less toxic? by retchdog · · Score: 1

      The LD50 alone means nothing; it must be compared to the "effective dose".

      --
      "They were pure niggers." – Noam Chomsky
  6. do not want by timmarhy · · Score: 1

    i have a mate who's a cop, he reckons as soon as a cop reaches for the pepper spray just give up, it's not worth being hit by.

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    If you mod me down, I will become more powerful than you can imagine....
  7. But will it work? by Asic+Eng · · Score: 1

    From my experience going out with Indian colleagues, I suspect they'd just bring some rice and chicken and purposely taunt the police...