The immediate effects of pepper balls are strong, and similar to other chemical irritants: it causes your eyes to tear and nose to run; it induces coughing, and can make it difficult to breathe. The length of time it effects your senses varies from 20 minutes to up to 90 minutes—that is, after you leave the area and remove the substance from your body.

If you are hit directly, it has an impact force similar to a paintball, Hodges and Burbank say. It stings and might leave a red welt, says Burbank. Both agree it’s not a good experience. “I’ve been hit a couple times in training, and it was not fun,” says Hodges.

When I asked Burbank about the relative danger of pepper balls to other nonlethal strategies that have been used against protesters, he put all chemical agents into the same category and places rubber bullets in the next level up of what he called a “use of force continuum.”  “Most officers say they’d rather be tased than pepper sprayed,” he says. “Taser is you deal with it, and it’s over. OC [oleoresin capsicum, the organic resin in pepper balls] lasts for a long time.”