Unpleasant surprise awaits rioters
Habshi
Police sniff out mother of all stink bombs
The globalisation debate - Observer special
Antony Barnett
Sunday February 24, 2002
The Observer
British police forces are considering using vile smells to quell
riots, disperse anti-globalisation protesters and end hostage
situations.
Last year in the United States, the Pentagon commissioned scientists
to come up with the mother of all stink bombs which would release the
world's worst smell causing rioters and disorderly mobs to flee but
not harming anybody.
Now in Britain the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo) is
investigating whether such weapons - known as malodorants - would be
useful to forces facing riots like those in Bradford last year or
anti-capitalism protests in the City.
The police believe these 'non-lethal weapons' would be far less
dangerous than rubber bullets or baton charges and less harmful than
tear gas, which disperses quickly.
An Acpo spokesman said: 'We are looking at a whole range of non-lethal
weapons including malodorants. We are monitoring all developments
including those in the US. In a riot or hostage situation we want to
minimise the risk of injury to the public and a malodorant might be
one answer.'
Last year, the Patten report into police reform in Northern Ireland
cited the US research and suggested that the use of malodorants was a
potential way forward for controlling public disorder.
The US stink bomb research is part of the Pentagon's non-lethal
weapons programme, which is working closely with the British military.
In 1998, the Pentagon commissioned scientist Pam Dalton, from the
Monell Chemical Senses Centre in Philadelphia, to test disgusting
odours.
One question she was trying to answer was whether there were different
cultural reactions to bad smells. She tested the odours on five ethnic
groups.
She found that two smells transcended cultural barriers: one is called
US Government Standard Bathroom Malodour, a horrendously concentrated
stink of human faeces.
Dalton said: 'It's very pungent... more precisely, it smells like
shit, but much, much stronger. It fills your head. It gets to you in
ways that are unimaginable. It's not something you are likely to come
across in the real world.'
She said that the smell made volunteers scream and curse after just a
few seconds of exposure, even though it is quite harmless.
The other odour which produced the desired results was known as 'Who
Me?' - a collection of sulphur molecules that stank of rotting
carcases and spoilt food.
Dalton believes that a combination of these two smells released into a
crowd would cause panic. She said: 'If these were released, they would
clear an area in seconds.'
However, the Pentagon research has been criticised by campaigning
groups who believe the development of such smells might breach
international arms agreements governing biological weapons.
Ed Hammond of the Sunshine Project, which campaigns against the
misuses of biotechnology, said: 'It appears these weapons cross a
dangerous line and appear to be tantamount to developing some kind of
ethnic weapon. '
The US army dismisses such concerns, saying they are trying to find
one smell that works across the globe and that a repulsive odour could
drive away the enemy without killing anybody.
Lieutenant-Colonel George Rhynedance, a Pentagon spokesman, said: 'It
would give us an offensive capability against large and unruly groups,
if they are unwilling to move or openly hostile. And it would minimise
the risk to our own people and to the antagonists.'
Habshi
Carey Gregory
> *snip*
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