Spray-Foam Insulation For Defense??

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Cosmoline

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I noticed this morning on the news that some of the holdouts in Gaza were spraying what appeared to be spray-foam insulation into the faces of soldiers. The idea, I suppose is to get them to inhale it where it would expand in the lungs.

The over-the-counter sprayfoam is pretty low pressure and stands little chance of getting inhaled, thankfully. But what about some of the commercial stuff that expands much more rapidly and is fired out from a hose? Just on a theoretical level, could such foam be used to incapacitate or kill people in a crowd?
 
i think its beyond theory and has been made for such situations already. i dont know how efficient/effective it would be but ive seen articles on it being developd for military and security purposes.

they also have a type of foam that bubbles up like mad...you hose the person down with it...they can still breath but cant see whats going on.

then they have a sticky foam that they can launch at you that pretty much glues you to yourself and anything you touch. ive read this has been used in real life situations...jails and i think operation desert storm.

neat stuff
 
it's my understanding that they gave up on developing spray foam weapons ten or fifteen years ago when they discovered that what they thought were "non lethal" were actually "quite horribly lethal under the right circumstances."

you can definitely suffocate someone with such things... but not before they have a chance to kill you, too.
 
In South Africa, there were a couple of incidents back in the 1980's where muggers would take a can of aerosol insecticide and a cigarette lighter. They'd spray the insecticide towards their intended victim, and hold the (lit) cigarette lighter beneath the spray. This ignited the spray, and made it into a quite effective short-range flame-thrower. Tragically, it also made the burning insecticide into a skin-penetrating chemical weapon, and some victims got very, very sick as a result of their burns (particularly if these were not cleaned out immediately, but had to wait an hour or two to get to a hospital, which allowed the toxic substances to penetrate into their systems). Nasty, nasty stuff... :barf:
 
it's my understanding that they gave up on developing spray foam weapons ten or fifteen years ago when they discovered that what they thought were "non lethal" were actually "quite horribly lethal under the right circumstances."
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i wouldnt doubt it they had given up. as you said if hit in the face they can suffocate...also be blinded. the sticky foams ive heard of also were very hard to remove and required toxic solvents. not exactly humane. from the few articles ive read on it they were still trying to develop safer models...but i have no idea how old they are. to me it seems like anything that would quickly immobilize would still kill if it hit u in the face.

the breathable foams i mentioned werent immobilizing..they were just so the person couldnt see what was going on around them
 
There have been foamed based pepper spray on the market before, could that be what they were spraying? The foam stuff is heavier so wind doesn't blow it around nearly as much and it's supposed to stick better. My understanding is that many law enforcements agencies tried it but didn't like it too much for various reasons. It has a certain appeal to those of us who live in windy places though. Where I live you'd have to make sure you circled upwind before you would dare try to spray someone with any of the defensive type sprays or you'd be as likely to get it as much or more than your attacker.
 
Kinda looked like shaving foam to me, but I wasn't paying that much attention. The foaming insulation would have to get inside a body to bother anything. Even then, I think it needs air to activate.
 
"then they have a sticky foam that they can launch at you that pretty much glues you to yourself and anything you touch. ive read this has been used in real life situations...jails and i think operation desert storm."

A PITA to lcean up though.
 
That spray foam insulation is VERY difficult to remove once it sticks to skin. Don't ask me how I know... :(
 
That spray foam insulation is VERY difficult to remove once it sticks to skin. Don't ask me how I know...
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Ain't it tho? :neener:

Try some mild solvent, like lighter fluid or an auto body wax & grease remover.
 
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