Police vs. Occupiers: How dangerous is pepper spray?
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After police at UC Davis caused a national uproar by using pepper spray on peaceful student protesters, Fox News host Megyn Kelly dismissed the crowd-control weapon as "a food product,
essentially." That's not quite right. How dangerous is pepper spray? Here's what you should know:
Pepper spray relies on varying concentrations of a compound called capsaicin — the same substance that naturally gives peppers their notorious heat, and makes "habaneros so much more
formidable than the comparatively wimpy bells," says Deborah Blum at Scientific American.
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