Background: Spit restraint devices, also referred to as spit hoods, spit masks, or spit socks, are used by law enforcement and medical personnel to minimize transmission of communicable disease from bodily fluids from agitated individuals. Several lawsuits have implicated spit restraint devices as contributing to the death of individuals who are physically restrained by means of asphyxiation due to saturation of the mesh restraint device with saliva.
Objectives: This study aims to evaluate whether a saturated spit restraint device has any clinically significant effects on the ventilatory or circulatory parameters of healthy adult subjects.
Methods: Subjects wore a spit restraint device dampened with 0.5% carboxymethylcellulose, an artificial saliva. Baseline vitals were taken, and a wet spit restraint device was then placed over the subject's head, and repeat measurements were taken at 10, 20, 30, and 45 min. A second spit restraint device was placed 15 min after the first. Measurements at 10, 20, 30, and 45 min were compared with baseline using paired t-tests.
Results: The mean age of 10 subjects was 33.8 years, and 50% were female. There was no significant difference between baseline and while wearing the spit sock for 10, 20, 30, and 45 min for the measured parameters including heart rate, oxygen saturation, end-tidal CO, respiratory rate, or blood pressure. No subject indicated respiratory distress or had to terminate the study.
Conclusions: In healthy adult subjects, there were no statistically or clinically significant differences in ventilatory or circulatory parameters while wearing the saturated spit restraint.
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| http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jemermed.2022.12.003 | DOI Listing |
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Spit Hoods: Reforms to Law and Practice.
J Law Med
December 2023
Barrister, Castan Chambers, Melbourne, Australia; Professor, Law Faculty, and Professorial Fellow in Psychiatry, University of Melbourne; Honorary Professor of Forensic Medicine, Monash University.
Spit hoods have been used for decades to reduce the ability of people to spit and bite police officers, corrective services officers, paramedics, doctors and nurses. However, historically and in public consciousness they have sinister resonances and often induce fear, panic and distress in persons to whom they are applied or in whose presence they are worn. Problematically frequently spit hoods have been used on detainees from ethnic minorities, including in Australia, on Indigenous persons, individuals with mental illnesses and children taken into custody.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDo Saliva-Saturated Spit Hoods Interfere With Ventilation?
Am J Forensic Med Pathol
March 2024
LAAW International, LLC, Mesa, Arizona.
Spit hoods are used by law enforcement, officers in correctional facilities, and medical personnel during the restraint of agitated subjects that are actively spitting to prevent the transmission of droplet-transmitted pathogens. We could find no studies reporting on the time course of normal breathing to clear saliva from such a saturated spit hood. We purchased samples of 3 popular spit hood models and applied a section over the output of a pneumatic test system.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPhysiological Effects of a Spit Restraint Device Saturated With Artificial Saliva.
J Emerg Med
April 2023
Department of Emergency Medicine, University of California, San Diego, San Diego, California.
Background: Spit restraint devices, also referred to as spit hoods, spit masks, or spit socks, are used by law enforcement and medical personnel to minimize transmission of communicable disease from bodily fluids from agitated individuals. Several lawsuits have implicated spit restraint devices as contributing to the death of individuals who are physically restrained by means of asphyxiation due to saturation of the mesh restraint device with saliva.
Objectives: This study aims to evaluate whether a saturated spit restraint device has any clinically significant effects on the ventilatory or circulatory parameters of healthy adult subjects.
Further study on the physiological effects of an alternative spit mask.
J Forensic Leg Med
May 2020
Department of Emergency Medicine, University of California, San Diego Medical Center, USA.
Objectives: Spit masks are used by law enforcement officers and healthcare providers to protect themselves from the spread of communicable disease by subjects who pose a potential risk of biological exposure by spitting. Little research is available regarding the safety of these masks. However, concerns surround the ability of subjects to properly ventilate while wearing these masks as there are several anecdotal incidents of asphyxiation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe use of spit guards (also known as spit hoods) by police services in England, Wales and Northern Ireland: to prevent transmission of infection or another form of restraint?
J Forensic Leg Med
August 2019
St George's University Hospital, Wandsworth Child Death Overview Panel Chairman, NNDHP, UK.
Spit guards, also known as spit hoods or spit masks (and occasionally bite guards) are devices intended to cover the mouth, face and sometimes the head of a restrained person in order to prevent them spitting at, or biting others. There is substantial controversy about their use with views often polarised between civil and human rights campaigners who express concerns about their utility, their safety, and their possible encroachment on human rights, and in contrast by (predominantly) law enforcement campaigners highlighting concerns about the possible risks of transmission of infection and subsequent need for prophylaxis by law enforcement professionals exposed to biological fluids. This study explored the extent to which police services deploy spit guards and the rationale underpinning their use.
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