Rubber bullets carry high risk for blindness, eye loss when used at protests
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NEW ORLEANS — When law enforcement uses rubber bullets — also called kinetic impact projectiles — during protests, there is a high risk for blindness and loss of the eye, according to a study.
Nicole Koulisis, MD, said at the American Academy of Ophthalmology meeting that numerous reports emerged about blinding eye injuries among protesters due to kinetic impact projectiles (KIPs) used during demonstrations in 2020 following the death of George Floyd.
!["We aimed to better understand the extent of ocular injuries occurring in 2020 in protests and to evaluate the effect of [kinetic impact projectiles] use at protests." Nicole Koulisis, MD](/~/media/slack-news/ophthalmology/misc/infographics/2021/11_november/osn1121aao_koulisis_graphic_01.jpg?w=800)
“[The American Academy of Ophthalmology] called on law enforcement to end the use of rubber bullets at protests,” she said. “We aimed to better understand the extent of ocular injuries occurring in 2020 in protests and to evaluate the effect of KIP use at protests.”
Researchers collected data on mechanisms of trauma and extent of injuries and used publicly available data sets to determine if there were any associations between the type of crowd control used (KIP use vs. no KIP use) and the number of protests or protest-related deaths in the subsequent days.
Investigators identified 72 injuries in 67 patients (73.1% protesters, 16.4% bystanders, 7.5% law enforcement officers and 3% journalists). More than half of the patients had combined ocular and adnexal injuries, and 22% of patients had open-globe injuries.
The most common mechanisms of trauma were non-KIP projectiles (28.4%), direct KIPs (22.4%) and blunt non-projectiles (17.9%). Patients with direct KIP injuries had the worst outcomes, including retinal detachment in two-thirds of patients and enucleation in 40%. These patients also had worse final visual acuity.
In their analysis, Koulisis and colleagues found that every protest in which KIPs were used was associated with an increasing number of protests in the subsequent days.
“KIPs fired during protest carry a high risk of blindness and loss of the eye,” Koulisis said. “The use of KIPs at protests should be avoided.”
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Koulisis N. Ocular trauma and death during protests and riots of 2020: Decision analysis informed by data and dynamic mathematical modeling. Presented at: American Academy of Ophthalmology meeting; Nov. 12-15, 2021; New Orleans.
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