PAVA spray

PAVA spray is dispensed from a hand-held canister in a liquid stream that contains a 0.3% solution of PAVA (pelargonic acid vanillylamide), a synthetic capsaicinoid, in a solvent of aqueous ethanol. The propellant is nitrogen.

This solution has been selected because this is the minimum concentration which will fulfil the purpose of the equipment; namely to minimise a person’s capacity for resistance without unnecessarily prolonging their discomfort. PAVA is significantly more potent than CS.

The liquid stream is a spray pattern and has a maximum effective range of up to 4 metres. Maximum accuracy, however, will be achieved over a distance of 1.25 - 2 metres. The operating distance is the distance between the canister and the subject’s eyes not the distance between the officer and the subject.

Effects of PAVA

PAVA primarily affects the eyes, causing closure and severe pain. The pain to the eyes is reported to be greater than that caused by CS. The effectiveness rate is very high once PAVA gets into the eyes; however, there have been occasions where PAVA has failed to work—especially when the subject is under the influence of alcohol or drugs. Exposure to fresh moving air will normally result in a significant recovery from the effects of PAVA within 15–35 minutes.

During Police Training, Officers are usually told that PAVA has minimal malignant side effects. Subjects sprayed with PAVA may feel like Hospital admission is required, but this is almost always not the case. These benign after effects are usually the reason PAVA is used, as oppose to CS, where Hospital admission is usually sought after experiencing upper airway symptoms.

Pharmacologically, like other capsaicinoids, PAVA works by direct binding to receptors (TRPV1) that normally produce the pain and sensation of heat as if exposed to scalding heat.

British police use

British police forces have traditionally used CS Gas spray. More recently, some forces, such as Dyfed-Powys Police; Hertfordshire Police; Suffolk Police; Wiltshire Police; West Yorkshire Police; Northamptonshire Police; Thames Valley Police; Devon and Cornwall Police and Lancashire Police, as well as the Ministry of Defence Police and British Transport Police have opted to use PAVA.

The PAVA personal irritant incapacitant spray is carried by all police officers while on operational duties, and if they have been trained in its use. As dictated in UK firearms law PAVA—along with CS and other incapacitants in spray form— are prohibited under s5 of the Firearms Act as a "weapon of whatever description designed or adapted for the discharge of any noxious liquid, gas or other thing", meaning that it is unlawful for a member of the public to possess them. Police officers, as servants of the Crown, are exempt from this restriction.