When I say "commonly-available", I mean "big national brands that you can find in a supermarket anywhere in the country". With less common/local brands, yeah, some are actually quite hot.
Gordon Ramsay did some food shows in India. In one of them there is a hot pepper eating contest. He tests and bows out. A woman won by eating the most in a given time (maybe a minute), she beat the other contestants but not the record; so to up it, she rubbed the peppers into her eyes to win a bonus prize. WTF!! The audience seemed to “appreciate” it.
Apparently there is a gene for pain sensitivity, this Norwegian talk show[1] hosts [2] got their tested and their sidekick has a higher tolerance for pain. They tested this by putting their hands above some tea lights from 9:30 onwards.
I looked it up and can’t find anything that claims what you do that a pepper can blind you. I did find one article that said it can not after one exposure but possibly long term exposure could it just wasn’t tested. Do you have any sources on that claim? Thank you. I ask because we used to prank with peppers when I was young never worried about blinding someone though it was good if they rubbed their eyes or took a pee with ghost hands.
>If that's considered safe enough to be used by police
I mean, there has been some discussion over the last few years that police don't actually have as good a safety record as one might hope when doing things that could involve pepper spraying, or hitting, or tazing, or otherwise subduing people.
This is true of the US, but pepper spray is also used by police forces in many other countries around the world where the police have a much better track record.
Yeah, that's what I always thought. Then I moved to New Mexico, and got my tongue, gums and throat handed to me on a plate.