OG Pepper Spray Immunity

My daughter is currently doing BCOT Training and a part of her training was to be sprayed with LE grade pepper spray. Apparently, it had no effect on her. The training was get sprayed across the face from ear to ear and then run (escorted) an obstacle course. She required no escort because she had no reaction to it except mild warmth on her cheeks. All of the other people before and after her were falling down, crying, coughing, flowing snot, etc. Her instructor told her that in his 30 years of spraying people, he'd only seen it one other time and had no explanation for it.

I thought this strange so I searched for reasons and couldn't really find any concrete reasons just speculation. No studies have been done on it presumably because it only affects a very small (1%) of the world population.

I'm wondering if any of you have insight into this. I'm concerned, generally about her choice of careers, heh, but more specifically now because I don't know if this could change in the future. Will her immunity last? If not, then she won't be prepared for it if the time comes when she needs this experience.

a reply to: Iamonlyhuman

I was in a restaurant, across the room from a woman who picked her friends keys, fumbled with a spray canister on the keychain, and sprayed a small amount of pepper spray into the air. It Aerosolized quickly and within a few minutes, the whole place was emptied out. It affected everyone in the room. With such a small amount sprayed, and seeing the effects of it, I can't imagine anyone not being gagged by it.

She has a superpower. Get her a cape.

originally posted by: network dude
a reply to: Iamonlyhuman

I was in a restaurant, across the room from a woman who picked her friends keys, fumbled with a spray canister on the keychain, and sprayed a small amount of pepper spray into the air. It Aerosolized quickly and within a few minutes, the whole place was emptied out. It affected everyone in the room. With such a small amount sprayed, and seeing the effects of it, I can't imagine anyone not being gagged by it.

She has a superpower. Get her a cape.

Did all the people come back and pay for their food ? I carry pepper spay all the time.

originally posted by: network dude
a reply to: Iamonlyhuman

She has a superpower. Get her a cape.

Haha, I agree but then again I'm her mother so..... I'm just worried it won't last and she could be at risk not knowing how it feels.

a reply to: Iamonlyhuman

She should try it again, just to rule out the possibility that the canister somehow managed to malfunction, giving her an extremely diluted dose. I don't even know if that's possible. It's probably not. That's just the first thing that came to mind, and if it was me, I think I'd wanna try again, just because.

a reply to: Iamonlyhuman

You should encourage her to enter a "hottest curry"eating contest-I bet she would win.

There has to be a hustle in there somewhere-bets on eating ghost peppers or something.

a reply to: Trueman

I think everyone came back in and I know I payed for my meal. It was one of my first business trips in Culpepper Virginia back in the mid 90's.

a reply to: Iamonlyhuman

I'm no scientist, but IRC then main ingerdiant in most pepper sprays is capsaicin.

IRC capsaicin is not water soluable it is fat/oil soluable.

This is why flushing with milk works better to calm the reaction than watter.

So with this in mind I would speculate it has something to do with the way your daughters body processes either capsaicin specifically, or the family of fatty acids capsaicin is a part of in general.

This could be systemic or only effect her tear ducts throat, and nasal cavity.

Without doing further research on the modality you might see how she responds to foods rich in capsaicin firstly by ingestion orally, and then maybe progressing to introducing the capsaicin rich food to some less obvious but equally sensitive ducts sweat glands/ducts such as the armpit, anus, gentailia or milk ducts.

I know this may sound crass, but it would at least eliminate the potential of this being something systemic or confirm its limitations based locality.

Short of that which I personally would not recommend or suggest to my own daughter I would say further research is needed. Ideally by a trained clinician specializing in dermatology.

Personally I say skip all that and buy her a Cape. She is a super hero and you should be proud she sprang from your loins.

a reply to: Iamonlyhuman

She's just lucky.

I've been in the Marine Corps for 20 years. If you're on guard or MP duty you go through OC spray training too.

Every rare once in a while you come across someone who is uneffected by it.

Ok so I figured I'd check and see if they make a capsaicin free peper spray and they do, but then problem is its main ingredient is a very close relative to capsaicin.

Oleoresin Capsicum

"Pepper spray is a powerful substance containing capsaicin—or Oleoresin Capsicum (OC)—a derivative of cayenne pepper. It causes temporary blindness and an excruciating burning sensation in the eyes and mouth that incapacitates attackers—allowing for a safe getaway."

www.safewise.com...

So unfortunatly there is no easy way to test whether it is the family of compounds she is immune to localy or sytemically.

Drat sorry.

a reply to: Stevenmonet

Yeah, I’m not sure I’m going to want to do that to her!

originally posted by: Stevenmonet
Personally I say skip all that and buy her a Cape. She is a super hero and you should be proud she sprang from your loins.

Lol, I am (most of the time) but for unrelated reasons. I’ve read it could be genetic too, but no, I’m not testing it on me. Hmmm, maybe her dad….

originally posted by: watchitburn
a reply to: Iamonlyhuman

She's just lucky.

I've been in the Marine Corps for 20 years. If you're on guard or MP duty you go through OC spray training too.

Every rare once in a while you come across someone who is uneffected by it.

Could the spray have been old, does it lose potency?

originally posted by: SeaWorthy

originally posted by: watchitburn
a reply to: Iamonlyhuman

She's just lucky.

I've been in the Marine Corps for 20 years. If you're on guard or MP duty you go through OC spray training too.

Every rare once in a while you come across someone who is uneffected by it.

Could the spray have been old, does it lose potency?

Obviously, I don't know for sure but everyone else reacted strongly so I assume it was good.

Our police academy used to use a local guy who owned a bbq restaurant for several decades as an example. All of the years of hickory smoke in his face made him immune to the effects of pepper spray.

a reply to: Iamonlyhuman

I used to help conduct training on my ship, and we did the OC/CS spray obstacle course as well. I was told that it's usually, if not always, women who are immune to it. I can't remember ever being told any stories of men being immune to it.

And in my security career after the military that's what all the oldheads said as well.

That being said I have seen men take it in stride with minimal effects.

But in reality it could be that the can they hit her with had expired. Expired OC spray doesn't pack the kick a fresh can will.

That's just my anecdotal stories.

Fun fact: One day during a steel beach picnic we sprayed our hot dogs with OC spray and ate them.

originally posted by: LordAhriman
Our police academy used to use a local guy who owned a bbq restaurant for several decades as an example. All of the years of hickory smoke in his face made him immune to the effects of pepper spray.

That's interesting. I can't think of anything that she's done like this though. She's 23 and led a pretty "normal" life so far.

I wonder if he was naturally immune or whether the smoke was the reason.

originally posted by: AutomateThis1
a reply to: Iamonlyhuman

I used to help conduct training on my ship, and we did the OC/CS spray obstacle course as well. I was told that it's usually, if not always, women who are immune to it. I can't remember ever being told any stories of men being immune to it.

And in my security career after the military that's what all the oldheads said as well.

That being said I have seen men take it in stride with minimal effects.

But in reality it could be that the can they hit her with had expired. Expired OC spray doesn't pack the kick a fresh can will.

That's just my anecdotal stories.

Fun fact: One day during a steel beach picnic we sprayed our hot dogs with OC spray and ate them.

Thanks. I think I'm going to implore her to ask to be "tested" again. Just to see if it was fluke. Can civilians buy the same strength that LE does? I might test it on her myself!

a reply to: Iamonlyhuman

The canister was probably empty, or close to empty.

Lucky girl.

a reply to: Iamonlyhuman

Wait, you mean a young woman didn't die from a chemical agent, yet we are to believe that Brian Sicknick, a trained police officer who as part of his training would have been subjected to pepper spray and chemical irritants, died from secondhand "bear" spray? BTW, typically bear spray has less capsicum content that pepper sprays used for self defense. The whole "bear" spray narrative is similar to the "assault weapons" narrative, meant to sound more SCARY.

johnaugust.com...
"Although pepper spray and bear spray contain the same active chemical, they are not the same thing. Bear spray has a much lower concentration of oleoresin capsicum, and should only be used as a bear deterrent."

cottagelife.com...
"Both bear spray and pepper spray are made of oleoresin capsicum (OC), an oily substance made from cayenne peppers. In bear spray, the concentrations of “capsaicin and related capsaicinoids” (CRC) or “major capsaicinoids” (MC)—the parts of the oleoresin capsicum that actually cause pain—tend to be lower than in (illegal-in-Canada) personal pepper spray, which can range between 1% and 3%."

Hmm, something smells fishy here.

I once pepper sprayed a teen from Mexico i found breaking into my truck.

He was not immune, but the reaction was delayed, and he was able to run for about 3 blocks before he had to use a garden hose in someone's front yard to wash down when the cops caught him.

I had cornered him and used a large can of bear spray to hit him from head to foot in a cloud of spray, and he was wearing a tank top and shorts.
From what the cops told me his breathing and eyes were little effected, but his skin was on fire and turned bright red.

The cops had to leave all the windows in the cop car rolled down to take him to the station.

a week later they arrested his father because he was sending his kids out to steal and then he was taking the idems to a swap meet to sell.

the father thought he was safe from arrest because the kids were doing the thefts and would only get a slap on the hand if caught.