Tear gas and onions

I had a friend many years ago, that had an uncle that was pretty high up in the police force. He made the mistake of leaving a canister of tear gas (pepper spray was not nearly as well known in those days) at my mate Jethro's house.
As it was we were bunking school, so a canister like this was not out of play!

What would two 17 year olds do with something like this? Well be idiotic of course!!

We did not disappoint......

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At least we tried this outside. We sprayed police grade tear gas in my friends small little back yard and thought for some reason that we would be just fine.
We were not! That stuff made you burn all over!! Any place where there was moisture on your body.....ANY PLACE....felt the wrath of this stuff.
It was hard to breath, impossible to see, and a load of fun and laughs for us 2.

We would laugh at the others misfortune....especially when Jethro first tried to wash the stuff out of his eyes....LOL, the poor guy almost died!! And I snorted and laughed, and cried all at once.

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I would hate to think what the neighbors thought if they were anywhere near there during work hours.

Onions and tear gas

Is there a correlation between onions and tear gas? They tend to have similar affects.
And what makes you cry when cutting an onion?

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In actual fact there is not much in common between the 2 besides that they both irritate the eyes.
When the eyes water from either cutting onions or being sprayed by tear gas (or running through a cloud of it like its a sprinkler system in a water park), both cause the body to secrete liquids in order to get rid of the irritant.

Tear gas is not really a gas at all (gasses are diffused too quickly to be effective), but a chemical substance or fine spray of powder or liquid that is released at times of rioting or illicit activities. It is called TEAR gas because the chemicals irritate the eyes, and other areas of the body like the lungs and nasal passages, and in fact are found that they can cause some toxic affects to the body.
These potentially damage the heart, lungs and liver.

These chemicals are called lachrymatory agent or lachryamator, from the Latin word “lacrima,’’ meaning tear.

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Onions work a little differently to this.
"When onions are cut, cells are broken open, allowing enzymes called allinases to emerge. These react with sulfur-containing compounds to produce sulfenic acids that are turned into a gas, syn-propanethial-S-oxide, that irritates nerves in the eyes and induces crying.

1. Lachrymatory-factor synthase is released into the air when we cut an onion.
2. The synthase enzyme converts the amino acids sulfoxides of the onion into sulfenic acid.
3. The unstable sulfenic acid rearranges itself into syn-ropanethial-S-oxide.
4. Syn-propanethial-S-oxide gets into the air and comes in contact with our eyes. The lachrymal glands become irritated and produces the tears!

That mouthful is what caused my poor dear wife to cry in the kitchen this morning as she prepared for tonight's dinner.
I came in to help, and in 5 minutes I was crying too.....the syn-propanethial-S-oxide was hitting both of us like it was Mike's big brother!

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So then how about some actual useful information in this post?

7 ways to cut an onion without hurting the eyes:

• Use a sharp knife to cut the onion—you'll release less of the enzymes into the air.
• Cut onions in cold water.
• Cut the root last—it has a higher concentration of enzymes.
• Chill or freeze onions to minimize the amount of gas released into the air.
• Light a match before you peel or slice the onion. The sulfur disables the compounds in onions that make your eyes water.
• Use a small manual or electric food chopper or food processor.
• Wear kitchen goggles to protect your eyes

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[Information credit is HERE and HERE]