Over the past few days, a handful of Thai anti-government protestors have died from unexplained, sudden causes. Numerous more have experienced their limbs and feet exploding. Studies by forensics experts and a human rights commission confirmed that a police squad had intentionally used three types of tear gas (American, Spanish, and Chinese), in order to subsidize the crowd during the protest. However, Pornthip Rojanasand, director of the Central Institute of Forensic Science, insists that the police relied heavily on the tear gas made from China. Tests proved that the Chinese tear gas contained high levels of RDX, an explosive commonly used in bombs, and powerfully enough to rip craters in the ground. Diagnoticians are now trying to aid the wounded and exposed protestors to remove the RDX from their systems, but remain unsure whether they will be successful.
http://query.nytimes.co/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E06EFD8143AF937A25753C1A96E9C8B63&scp=4&sq=Forensics&st=nyt
3 comments:
Well done Alex. I like the way you explained what RDX is, and what it's commonly used in.
I never knew that the police relied heavily on the Chinese tear gas.
Again, well done.
I though this was an ineresting article. You did a good job presenting a brief summary of the circumstances that the gasses were used. The connection to forensic sceience was very well done as well. It could have gone into more dept, possibly explaining the forensics scientist methods of identifying weather or not the gasses were chinese, spanish or american. But, other than that great article, these tear gasses sound pretty dangerous.
This was an interesting topic that was very informative. I had no idea this was happening in Thailand. I had a few questions while reading the article: I wonder what else is being done to help these exposed protestors? And what exactly is RDX and how does it work? Otherwise, good topic to choose.
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