Right to Breathe Act

Weapons of war have no place on our streets.

City Councilors Sameer Kanal and Candace Avalos are introducing an ordinance to protect Portlanders' health and safety by prohibiting law enforcement from using chemical weapons like tear gas in our city. Any entity responsible for an unlawful release of chemical weapons would be subject to fines up to $15,000 for each use. Anyone injured by chemical weapons use in violation of this ordinance would have the right to sue for damages.

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The large-scale use of chemical weapons was first documented during World War I. After the Geneva Protocol restricted their use in warfare, they were increasingly marketed to domestic law enforcement as a way to quell protests, often in response to labor strikes and even on WWI veterans themselves.

If it can't be used on the battlefield, it shouldn't be used on Portlanders.

Chemical weapons are dangerous, unnecessary, and harm our communities.

Public health agencies and researchers have found that tear gas is toxic and can cause significant health effects, including burns, vomiting, blindness and respiratory failure. Multiple studies have found an association between exposure and reproductive disturbances. Alarmingly, very few studies have been done on the long-term effects of repeated or prolonged exposure, and yet these weapons continue to be deployed on our communities.

What we do know is that tear gas is by nature indiscriminate, affecting not just the intended target, but anyone in the vicinity--such as passersby, neighbors, journalists, and even first responders. The particles drift beyond the immediate area and can spread up to a mile away, impacting homes, schools and businesses.

We've already seen the impacts of this in Portland. In January, thousands of Portlanders were exposed to tear gas while participating in a non-violent labor march, including children and the elderly. Last year, Cottonwood School of Civics and Science was forced to relocate due to clouds of tear gas endangering students and staff. Tear gas powder regularly seeped into the nearby 209-unit Gray's Landing apartment complex as well, sickening residents.

In addition to the dangers to human health, tear gas has negative ecological impacts. When it's deployed outside, the aerosolized particles coat the street, sidewalks, trees, and green spaces nearby, making the whole area less safe to live, work, and play in. The run-off from chemical weapons could also pollute our stormwater, ultimately ending up in the Willamette River. 

Not only are the costs associated with clean-up are a financial burden to taxpayers, but the use of tear gas by a City agency poses a legal risk. The City of Portland has been sued multiple times and has paid out nearly $1.2 million in settlements since 2020 related to local law enforcement's deployment of tear gas.

We don't want what happened in 2020 to happen again. 

The 2020 Black Lives Matter protests were met with months of tear gas deployment by Portland Police, at times far in excess of federal concentration limits. And though both the State and the City responded initially by restricting the use of tear gas, like so many directives and policies that came out of the racial justice movement, the restrictions were weakened or abandoned entirely once the news cycle moved on. 

Our laws should reflect our values, and this is not who Portland is. Let's not wait until there's another wave of incidents to act. Let's demonstrate that Portland has moved past its previous overreliance on chemical weapons and is a city that protects the well-being and rights of its communities and environment.

The Right to Breathe Act will be introduced in Committee soon! Urge the City Council and Mayor Wilson to protect our community's health and public safety and reject the militarization of our streets.