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Toni Thorne, left, and Gerri Rose, both of Kalispell, practice spraying containers that were filled with inert gases during a recent pepper-spray course. Craig Moore/Daily Inter Lake
Class gets a pepper-spray primer
By CHERY SABOL
The Daily Inter Lake
A new can of pepper spray rests reassuringly on your key ring or in your hiking shorts like a metal security blanket.
Don't be too confident yet. Do you know how to use it?
There are no studies yet on whether a bear or assailant is deterred by the screams of someone who whips out a can of pepper spray and accidentally douses himself or herself. It's better to use it on the intended target.
Last week, the Flathead County Sheriff's Office offered training on how to use pepper spray. Sponsored by the American Council on Criminal Justice Training, the free course taught nine people about the spray and what it does.
Sheriff's detective Travis Bruyer can speak from personal knowledge.
"I've been sprayed seven times on purpose," he said. He gave no number for the times he accidentally inhaled the irritant.
Five people in his class have the spray (one accidentally sprayed herself while camping), but they still peppered him with questions about it.
Should you hold your breath when you shoot it? Does it go bad? Which is better - the kind that sprays a fog or the kind that emits a stream?
Bruyer told the group that pepper spray has been found to be 86-percent effective in stopping violent assailants.
The spray is derived from the extract of dried cayenne peppers. It has been in use since 2000 B.C., according to Bruyer.
Its temporary effect is burning and blinding anyone whose respiratory system and eyes come in contact with it.
Bruyer said the spray takes as long as 15 minutes to clear from the respiratory system and from 15 to 30 minutes to clear from the eyes. Mucous membranes can take an hour to recover, he said.
Pepper spray is most effective when it's shot in repeated one-second bursts. It can be effective when shot from 4 inches to 12 feet away.
To ward off an assailant, Bruyer recommends unloading a burst of spray at an attacker's chest and then following a line up to his or her face. Then, Bruyer said, step away.
Temporarily blinded, assailants may lunge toward the last place they saw a person standing.
The spray can shouldn't be exposed to freezing or high temperatures. That means don't leave it in a vehicle in the summer or winter, Bruyer said. It should be replaced if the can starts to look battered or the labels are peeling off.
Most important is to test it when it's new, he said.
Some cans come with protective tabs that must be broken. Do that when it's new, not when it's needed, Bruyer said.
His students had a chance to test different varieties of the spray, which include a mist, a fog and a stream. There is a gel or foam variety that Bruyer doesn't recommend because an attacker can wipe it off his or her face and fling it back at a victim.
Using pepper-free test cans, students took aim at posters of an attacker.
They disagreed on which variety they liked.
One liked the fog. Another said the stream was easier to spray.
Several said the class was useful to them.
"He was very thorough," one woman said.
Bruyer plans to offer another class before the summer is over. He can be reached at 758-5600.
Reporter Chery Sabol may be reached at 758-4441 or by e-mail at csabol@dailyinterlake.com.