The Oregonian | By Catalina Gaitan | December 09, 2021
A woman is suing the city of Portland for $10,000, claiming tear gas deployed by police during summer 2020 demonstrations caused lasting damage to her menstrual health.
Michael Fuller, an attorney representing 41-year-old Lanora Vasquez, filed the civil rights complaint Sunday in Multnomah County Circuit Court. The lawsuit requests a jury trial, up to $10,000 and a judgement that the city was negligent in its use of tear gas.
Fuller said the city has about one month to respond.
“Deploying tear gas is by its very nature a very dangerous activity,” Fuller told The Oregonian/OregonLive on Wednesday. “The city knew or should have known that it was a harmful, toxic chemical.”
The city attorney’s office declined to comment on the pending litigation.
Vasquez moved out of her home in Southeast Portland’s Buckman neighborhood in August 2020 after experiencing months of cramping and irregularities to her menstrual cycle that she said were brought on by tear gas.
Buckman is the first neighborhood across the river from downtown Portland, the site of most of the city’s tear gas use. Vasquez said the gas would drift into her home through her windows and screen door, which she left open during the summer to stay cool.
Vasquez, who is immunocompromised, said that because of the COVID-19 pandemic she only left her house that summer to walk around her block.
But two weeks after Portland police began using tear gas to disperse protesters downtown, going outside caused Vasquez debilitating pain, she said.
“Halfway around the block I would be almost doubled over with cramps,” Vasquez said in an interview. “The only factor that was different was tear gas, a poison that’s known to cause issues with menstruation.”
Vasquez said her menstrual cycles became much heavier and less predictable — and that she started having unexpected allergy symptoms.
Vasquez said she decided to move out of her home of 10 years because of her fears over the long-term health effects of tear gas.
Vasquez, who now lives in Beaverton, said her daily walks are no longer painful. But she is still experiencing problems with her menstrual cycles, she said.
“When it does come, it’s heavy and the cramps are like nothing I’ve ever experienced in my life, it’s so painful,” she said. “I’m getting cancer screenings, and we don’t know what will happen long-term. It’s nerve-wracking.”
Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler barred the Portland Police Bureau from using CS gas, one kind of the toxic gas, in September 2020 after being criticized by residents like Vasquez who were repeatedly subjected to tear gas that seeped into their cars or homes.
But Wheeler’s decision came after months of the chemical agent being deployed on an almost nightly basis in downtown Portland and in residential neighborhoods throughout the city.
Researchers continue to study the effect of tear gas.
A study of more than 2,000 people who were exposed to tear gas in Portland in 2020 found that almost all reported experiencing physical and mental health effects, some for days or weeks afterward.
More than half of study participants who menstruate reported a disruption of their cycles after tear gas exposure, including increased cramping, unusual spotting and more days of bleeding, according to the study, which was released in April.
The long-term effects of tear gas exposure are still mostly unknown, Britta Torgrimson-Ojerio, lead author of the study and a nurse researcher at the Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research, said in April.
Short-term physical effects include burning eyes, blurred vision, shortness of breath, a choking sensation, rash, burns, nausea and dizziness.
Vasquez said she hopes her lawsuit will help those who are experiencing a similar “health puzzle” find the cause of their symptoms and get treatment. She also hopes the suit will encourage law enforcement in Portland and other cities to stop using tear gas.
“It’s dangerous for everyone, not just people who are right in front of the tear gas,” she said. “It’s an assault on the entire city.”
