Academic literature on the topic 'Less-Lethal projectiles'

<div><b>Introduction:</b> The use of less lethal impact munitions (LLIMs) by law enforcement has increased in frequency, especially following nationwide protests regarding police brutality and racial injustice in the summer of 2020. There are several reports of the projectiles causing severe injuries when they penetrate the skin including pulmonary contusions, bone fractures, liver lacerations, and, in some cases, death. The penetration threshold of skin in different body regions is due to differences in the underlying structure (varying degree of muscle, adipose tissue, and presence or absence of bone).</div> <div><b>Objective:</b> The objective of this study was to further investigate what factors affected the likelihood of skin penetration in various body regions and to develop corresponding penetration risk curves.</div> <div><b>Methods:</b> A total of eight, fresh/never frozen, unembalmed, postmortem human specimens (PMHS) were impacted by two projectile sizes: a 1″ and 5/8″ neoprene rubber ball in various body regions. Impacted body regions included the thigh, abdomen, anterior torso between ribs, anterior torso on a rib, sternum, scapula, posterior torso on a rib, and lower back for a total of a minimum of 24 shots per PMHS. To achieve both a penetrating and non-penetrating shot for each set of impacts, the impact location was assessed post impact to determine if penetration occurred, and the velocity of the next shot was adjusted to target the alternate outcome on the contralateral side within the same body region. Post-test, each PMHS underwent X-rays to determine if any other additional injuries occurred.</div> <div><b>Results:</b> A binary logistic regression analysis was performed to determine which factors (e.g., velocity and energy density) were statistically significant at predicting the risk of penetration. Energy density was utilized as the primary predictor to evaluate the two projectiles’ data together and additional parameters (e.g., skin thickness and BMI) were also tested as co-factors. Statistical significance was obtained with energy density alone for the thigh (<i>p</i> = 0.004), anterior torso between ribs (<i>p</i> = 0.043), lower back (<i>p</i> = 0.04), scapula (<i>p</i> = 0.03), and posterior torso on a rib (<i>p</i> = 0.005). The abdomen region was not significant with energy density alone (<i>p</i> = 0.085) but when BMI was added as a co-factor significance was found to be (<i>p</i> = 0.021). The sternum and anterior torso on a rib were not found to have statistical significance with any of the predictors analyzed. The 50% risk of penetration was found for each region that had statistical significance. The thigh had a 50% risk at 12.62 J/cm², 22.3 J/cm² for the anterior torso between ribs, 28.6 J/cm² for the lower back, 33.3 J/cm² for the scapula, and 34.3 J/cm² for the posterior torso on ribs.</div> <div><b>Conclusion:</b> The results support that energy density is a good predictor for estimating the likelihood of the skin to penetrate and that the risk of penetration varies by body region.</div>

Introduction: During protests following the death of George Floyd, kinetic impact projectiles (KIP) were used by law enforcement as a method of crowd control . We describe the injuries seen at a single Level 1 trauma center in Los Angeles over a two-day period of protests to add to the collective understanding of the public health ramifications of crowd-control weapons used in the setting of protests. Case Series: We reviewed the emergency department visits of 14 patients who presented to our facility due to injuries sustained from KIPs over a 48-hour period during civil protests after the death of George Floyd. Conclusion: Less lethal weapons can cause significant injuries and may not be appropriate for the purposes of crowd control, especially when used outside of established guidelines.

L'objectif scientifique de la thèse est de contribuer à améliorer la compréhension des mécanismes lésionnels découlant de l’impact non pénétrant d’un projectile en région thoracique latérale. Concrètement, l’application concerne l’amélioration de l’évaluation du potentiel lésionnel et l’optimisation de projectiles dits « à létalité réduite ». Cette étude a été menée dans le cadre du projet PARCHOC, associant la Délégation Générale pour l’Armement-Techniques Terrestres, le laboratoire PRISME de l’université d’Orléans, les sociétés Nexter munitions, ITC élastomère et ATCOM télémétrie. Il s’agit notamment de mettre en évidence les paramètres des projectiles qui doivent être maîtrisés pour limiter le risque lésionnel. Nous avons d’abord réalisé une étude pour caractériser des projectiles d'essais constitués d'un culot rigide et d'une ogive en mousse d'élastomère. Les propriétés dynamiques des élastomères ont été caractérisées par le système des barres de Hopkinson. Ce travail a permis la mise au point d'un modèle numérique de comportement des élastomères. Des essais ainsi que des simulations d’impacts sur cibles rigides ont ensuite été réalisés afin d'étudier l'influence du couple masse-vitesse et des caractéristiques mécaniques des élastomères sur le chargement généré. Dans la seconde partie de l'étude, des essais sur cibles biologiques instrumentées ont été menés à l’aide des projectiles d'études précédemment caractérisés. Les résultats expérimentaux et numériques montrent que la dangerosité des projectiles est liée à l’action qu’ils exercent sur la structure osseuse thoracique après sa fragilisation et que le mécanisme lésionnel est fortement dépendant de l’impulsion transmise par le projectile lors de l’impact
The scientific objective of the thesis was to make a contribution in the understanding of the injury mechanisms following the blunt impact of a projectile on the lateral thoracic region. Practically, the application concerns safety certification and optimization of less-lethal projectile. This research was supported by the project PARCHOC partners: the Délégation Générale pour l’Armement-techniques terrestres, the PRISME laboratory (Orléans university),the companies Nexter munitions, ITC élastomère and ATCOM télémétrie. In particular, we have sought the principal projectile parameters which must be controlled to limit injury risk. Firstly, we have performed a study based on specialized test projectiles, made with a rear rigid part and soft foam (elastomeric) nose. The foams’ chemical formulations were made so that the dynamical properties (measured with the Hopkinson bar apparatus) were those expected. Experiments and simulations of the impacts on rigid wall target have been made to investigate how the mass-velocity couple and the foam material properties influence the impact force. Secondly, an experimental campaign was made using pig anatomical parts and the projectiles previously studied. Experimental and numerical results obtained during the thesis demonstrate that the dangerous nature of the projectiles used is essentially linked to the action on the thoracic bone structure after it has been weakened by the impact. Furthermore, injuries are strongly dependent upon the impulse transmitted during the impact

Au cours des dernières années, l'utilisation d'armes à létalité réduite a augmenté. Ces armes, conçues pour neutraliser des individus présentant un comportement dangereux, peuvent causer des blessures, voire la mort. Des mécanismes de lésions similaires sont observés lors de la déformation arrière des gilets pare-balles au cours d'impact avec projectiles d’arme à feu. Afin de protéger les citoyens et les forces de l’ordre, il est nécessaire de prévenir de tels scénarios. Or aujourd'hui peu d'outils sont disponibles pour aider au dimensionnement de tel équipements. Dans cette optique, ce travail de thèse vise à développer des outils de prédiction du risque de lésion thoracique lors d'impact balistique non pénétrant. Ainsi, un substitut physique de thorax humain et son jumeau numérique sont développés. Dans un premier temps, le modèle numérique HUByx est utilisé comme référence pour construire un modèle numérique simplifié pouvant être fabriqué avec des matériaux disponibles dans le commerce. Les différents matériaux sont caractérisés et leurs lois de comportement sont établies. Une fois validé, ce modèle numérique sert de base pour construire le substitut physique appelé SurHUByx. Celui-ci est équipé de différents capteurs permettant d'enregistrer les données au niveau des côtes et des organes internes lors d'impact. Des cas d'impact précisément décrits dans des rapports sont reproduits sur SurHUByx pour relier les données issues des capteurs à un bilan lésionnel. Enfin, une approche statistique est utilisée pour développer des courbes de probabilité de lésion, permettant d'estimer le risque de lésion suite à un impact sur SurHUByx ou son jumeau numérique SurHUByx FEM
In recent years, the use of less-lethal weapons has increased. These weapons, designed to neutralise individuals exhibiting dangerous behaviour, can cause injuries or even death. Similar injury mechanisms are observed in the rear deformation of bulletproof vests during impacts. To protect citizens and law enforcement personnel, it is necessary to prevent such scenarios. However, today there are few tools available to assist in the sizing of such equipment. In this context, this thesis aims to develop tools for predicting thoracic injury risk during non-penetrating ballistic impacts. Accordingly, a physical substitute of the human thorax and its numerical twin are developed. Initially, the HUByx numerical model is used as a reference to construct a simplified numerical model that can be manufactured using readily available materials. Different materials are characterised, and their material laws are established. Once validated, this numerical model serves as a basis for constructing the physical substitute called SurHUByx. It is equipped with various sensors to record data over the rib and in internal organs during ballistic impacts. Specific impact cases described in case reports are replicated on SurHUByx to correlate sensor data with injury assessments. Finally, a statistical approach is used to develop injury prediction curves, allowing to estimate of the risk of injury following an impact on SurHUByx or its numerical twin, SurHUByx FEM

Depuis plusieurs décennies, l’évaluation des armes à létalité réduite (ALR) et des gilets pare-balles suscite l’intérêt majeur des forces de l’ordre autour du globe. En effet, ces armes présumées à létalité réduite ou non létales sont tenues d’occasionner uniquement une douleur suffisamment importante à un individu afin d’assurer sa neutralisation. Les gilets pare-balles, quant à eux, doivent garantir un certain niveau de protection pour réduire le risque de traumatismes lié à leur déformation dynamique. Le Centre de Recherche, d’Expertise et d’appui Logistique (CREL) du Ministère de l’Intérieur français a ainsi pour objectif le développement d’un outil de prédiction du risque lésionnel thoracique lors d’impacts balistiques non pénétrants. Cela permettrait alors d’évaluer les performances des ALR et des gilets pare-balles avant leur déploiement en théâtre d’opérations. Plus précisément, cette méthode doit uniquement être fondée sur la mesure directe du processus dynamique de déformation d’un bloc de gel synthétique soumis à un impact balistique. Pour répondre à ce besoin, l’approche numérique est considérée dans ces travaux de thèse par l’emploi du mannequin numérique du thorax humain HUByx comme un outil intermédiaire permettant la détermination de fonctions de transfert entre les mesures expérimentales sur un bloc de gel et le risque lésionnel. La reproduction de conditions d’impact réelles sur HUByx nécessite la caractérisation et la modélisation de projectiles ALR ainsi que de projectiles d’armes à feu et de gilets pare-balles. Elles reposent sur une procédure d’identification par méthode inverse appliquée à l’essai de Taylor pour la modélisation des ALR et à l’essai du cône dynamique d’enfoncement sur le bloc de gel pour celle du couple projectile/gilet pare-balles. Des travaux sont dédiés à la caractérisation mécanique et à la modélisation du gel synthétique sous sollicitations dynamiques. Enfin, une approche statistique basée sur des analyses de corrélation est introduite exploitant à la fois les mesures expérimentales, les données numériques ainsi que les rapports de cas de la littérature. Une cartographie du thorax associée au risque de fractures costales est établie et est uniquement fonction d’une mesure expérimentale
For decades, the assessment of less-lethal weapons (LLW) and bulletproof vests has generated major interest from law enforcement agencies around the world. Indeed, these presumed less-lethal or non-lethal weapons are required to cause only significant pain to an individual to ensure their neutralization. Bulletproof vests, in turn, must provide a certain level of protection to reduce the risk of trauma related to their dynamic deformation. The Center for Research, Expertise and Logistics Support (CREL) of the French Ministry of the Interior aims to develop a tool to predict thoracic injury risk during non-penetrating ballistic impacts. It would therefore be possible to evaluate the performance of LLW and bulletproof vests before their deployment in operations. More precisely, this method must only be based on the direct measurement of the dynamic process of deformation of a synthetic gel block subjected to a ballistic impact. To address that issue, the numerical approach is considered in this thesis by the use of the human thorax dummy HUByx as an intermediate tool for the determination of transfer functions between experimental metrics on a gel block and the risk of injury. The reproduction of real impact conditions on HUByx thus requires the characterization and modeling of less-lethal projectiles as well as projectiles of firearms and bulletproof vests. They rely on an inverse method identification procedure applied to the Taylor test for modeling LLW and on the analysis of blunt impacts on the gel block for projectiles/bulletproof vests. Work is then dedicated to the mechanical characterization and modeling of the synthetic gel under dynamic loadings. Finally, a statistical approach based on correlation analyses is introduced using both experimental measurements, numerical data as well as case reports from the literature. A thorax mapping associated with the risk of rib fractures is established and only depends on an experimental metric

Description: Shipping is responsible for a range of different pressures affecting air quality, climate, and the marine environment. Most social and economic analyses of shipping have focused on air pollution assessment and how shipping may impact climate change and human health. This risks that policies may be biased towards air pollution and climate change, whilst impacts on the marine environment are not as well known. One example is the sulfur regulation introduced in January 2020, which requires shipowners to use a compliant fuel with a sulfur content of 0.5% (0.1% in SECA regions) or use alternative compliance options (Exhaust Gas Cleaning Systems, EGCS) that are effective in reducing sulfur oxide (SOx) emissions to the atmosphere. The EGCS cleaning process results in large volumes of discharged water that includes a wide range of contaminants. Although regulations target SOx removal, other pollutants such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), metals and combustion particles are removed from the exhaust to the wash water and subsequently discharged to the marine environment. Based on dilution series of the Whole Effluent Testing (WET), the impact of the EGCS effluent on marine invertebrate species and on phytoplankton was found to vary between taxonomic groups, and between different stages of the invertebrate life cycle. Invertebrates were more affected than phytoplankton, and the most sensitive endpoint detected in the present project was the fertilisation of sea urchin eggs, which were negatively affected at a sample dilution of 1 : 1,000,000. Dilutions of 1: 100,000 were harmful to early development of several of the tested species, including mussels, polychaetes, and crustaceans. The observed effects at these low concentrations of EGCS effluent were reduced egg production, and deformations and abnormal development of the larvae of the species. The ecotoxicological data produced in the EMERGE project were used to derive Predicted No Effect Concentration values. Corresponding modelling studies revealed that the EGCS effluent can be considered as a single entity for 2-10 days from the time of discharge, depending on the environmental conditions like sea currents, winds, and temperature. Area 10-30 km outside the shipping lanes will be prone to contaminant concentrations corresponding to 1 : 1,000,000 dilution which was deemed harmful for most sensitive endpoints of WET experiments. Studies for the Saronikos Gulf (Aegean Sea) revealed that the EGCS effluent dilution rate exceeded the 1 : 1,000,000 ratio 70% of the time at a distance of about 10 km from the port. This was also observed for 15% of the time within a band of 10 km wide along the shipping lane extending 500 km away from the port of Piraeus. When mortality of adult specimens of one of the species (copepod Acartia tonsa) was used as an endpoint it was found to be 3-4 orders of magnitude less sensitive to EGCS effluent than early life stage endpoints like fertilisation of eggs and larval development. Mortality of Acartia tonsa is commonly used in standard protocols for ecotoxicological studies, but our data hence shows that it seriously underestimates the ecologically relevant toxicity of the effluent. The same is true for two other commonly used and recommended endpoints, phytoplankton growth and inhibition of bioluminescence in marine bacteria. Significant toxic effects were reached only after addition of 20-40% effluent. A marine environmental risk assessment was performed for the Öresund region for baseline year 2018, where Predicted Environmental Concentrations (PECs) of open loop effluent discharge water were compared to the PNEC value. The results showed modelled concentrations of open loop effluent in large areas to be two to three orders of magnitude higher than the derived PNEC value, yielding a Risk Characterisation Ratio of 500-5000, which indicates significant environmental risk. Further, it should be noted that between 2018-2022 the number of EGCS vessels more than quadrupled in the area from 178 to 781. In this work, the EGCS discharges of the fleet in the Baltic Sea, North Sea, the English Channel, and the Mediterranean Sea area were studied in detail. The assessments of impacts described in this document were performed using a baseline year 2018 and future scenarios. These were made for the year 2050, based on different projections of transport volumes, also considering the fuel efficiency requirements and ship size developments. From the eight scenarios developed, two extremes were chosen for impact studies which illustrate the differences between a very high EGCS usage and a future without the need for EGCS while still compliant to IMO initial GHG strategy. The scenario without EGCS leads to 50% reduction of GHG emissions using low sulfur fuels, LNG, and methanol. For the high EGCS adoption scenario in 2050, about a third of the fleet sailing the studied sea areas would use EGCS and effluent discharge volumes would be increased tenfold for the Baltic Sea and hundredfold for the Mediterranean Sea when compared to 2018 baseline discharges. Some of the tested species, mainly the copepods, have a central position in pelagic food webs as they feed on phytoplankton and are themselves the main staple food for most fish larvae and for some species of adult fish, e.g., herring. The direct effect of the EGSE on invertebrates will therefore have an important indirect effect on the fish feeding on them. Effects are greatest in and near shipping lanes. Many important shipping lanes run close to shore and archipelago areas, and this also puts the sensitive shallow water coastal ecosystems at risk. It should be noted that no studies on sub-lethal effects of early 19 life stages in fish were included in the EMERGE project, nor are there any available data on this in the scientific literature. The direct toxic effects on fish at the expected concentrations of EGCS effluent are therefore largely unknown. According to the regional modelling studies, some of the contaminants will end up in sediments along the coastlines and archipelagos. The documentation of the complex chemical composition of EGCS effluent is in sharp contrast to the present legislation on threshold levels for content in EGCS effluent discharged from ships, which includes but a few PAHs, pH, and turbidity. Traditional assessments of PAHs in environmental and marine samples focus only on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) list of 16 priority PAHs, which includes only parent PAHs. Considering the complex PAHs assemblages and the importance of other related compounds, it is important to extend the EPA list to include alkyl-PAHs to obtain a representative monitoring of EGCS effluent and to assess the impact of its discharges into the marine environment. An economic evaluation of the installation and operational costs of EGCS was conducted noting the historical fuel price differences of high and low sulfur fuels. Equipment types, installation dates and annual fuel consumption from global simulations indicated that 51% of the global EGCS fleet had already reached break-even by the end of 2022, resulting in a summarised profit of 4.7 billion €2019. Within five years after the initial installation, more than 95% of the ships with open loop EGCS reach break-even. The pollutant loads from shipping come both through atmospheric deposition and direct discharges. This underlines the need of minimising the release of contaminants by using fuels which reduce the air emissions of harmful components without creating new pollution loads through discharges. Continued use of EGCS and high sulfur fossil fuels will delay the transition to more sustainable options. The investments made on EGCS enable ships to continue using fossil fuels instead of transitioning away from them as soon as possible as agreed in the 2023 Dubai Climate Change conference. Continued carriage of residual fuels also increases the risk of dire environmental consequences whenever accidental releases of oil to the sea occur.