Police sniff out mother of all stink bombs

British police forces are considering using vile smells to quell riots, disperse anti-globalisation protesters and end hostage situations.

Last year in the United States, the Pentagon commissioned scientists to come up with the mother of all stink bombs which would release the world's worst smell causing rioters and disorderly mobs to flee but not harming anybody.

Now in Britain the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo) is investigating whether such weapons - known as malodorants - would be useful to forces facing riots like those in Bradford last year or anti-capitalism protests in the City.

The police believe these 'non-lethal weapons' would be far less dangerous than rubber bullets or baton charges and less harmful than tear gas, which disperses quickly.

An Acpo spokesman said: 'We are looking at a whole range of non-lethal weapons including malodorants. We are monitoring all developments including those in the US. In a riot or hostage situation we want to minimise the risk of injury to the public and a malodorant might be one answer.'

Last year, the Patten report into police reform in Northern Ireland cited the US research and suggested that the use of malodorants was a potential way forward for controlling public disorder.

The US stink bomb research is part of the Pentagon's non-lethal weapons programme, which is working closely with the British military.

In 1998, the Pentagon commissioned scientist Pam Dalton, from the Monell Chemical Senses Centre in Philadelphia, to test disgusting odours.

One question she was trying to answer was whether there were different cultural reactions to bad smells. She tested the odours on five ethnic groups.

She found that two smells transcended cultural barriers: one is called US Government Standard Bathroom Malodour, a horrendously concentrated stink of human faeces.

Dalton said: 'It's very pungent... more precisely, it smells like shit, but much, much stronger. It fills your head. It gets to you in ways that are unimaginable. It's not something you are likely to come across in the real world.'

She said that the smell made volunteers scream and curse after just a few seconds of exposure, even though it is quite harmless.

The other odour which produced the desired results was known as 'Who Me?' - a collection of sulphur molecules that stank of rotting carcases and spoilt food.

Dalton believes that a combination of these two smells released into a crowd would cause panic. She said: 'If these were released, they would clear an area in seconds.'

However, the Pentagon research has been criticised by campaigning groups who believe the development of such smells might breach international arms agreements governing biological weapons.

Ed Hammond of the Sunshine Project, which campaigns against the misuses of biotechnology, said: 'It appears these weapons cross a dangerous line and appear to be tantamount to developing some kind of ethnic weapon. '

The US army dismisses such concerns, saying they are trying to find one smell that works across the globe and that a repulsive odour could drive away the enemy without killing anybody.

Lieutenant-Colonel George Rhynedance, a Pentagon spokesman, said: 'It would give us an offensive capability against large and unruly groups, if they are unwilling to move or openly hostile. And it would minimise the risk to our own people and to the antagonists.'

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