Pepper Gas Likely Caused Store Illnesses : Valencia: Authorities say they made that assumption based on the symptoms of shoppers. Twenty-one were treated at a hospital.

Pepper gas, similar to that used in pepper spray devices, is the likely cause of fumes that sent 21 holiday shoppers to the hospital and forced the evacuation of a major department store in Valencia on Saturday, according to Los Angeles County fire officials.

“We don’t know if it was accidental or intentional,” said Capt. Edward M. Gil of the Los Angeles County Fire Department. He said the assumption that pepper gas caused the incident at the Robinson-May in the Valencia Town Center was based on shoppers’ symptoms.

Fire officials evacuated the store about 2:45 p.m. Saturday, after 25 shoppers experienced shortness of breath, chest pain and watery eyes.

“The same symptoms you could find with pepper gas,” said Capt. Shawn Corbeil.

The injuries to those taken to local hospitals were not believed to be serious.

“Everybody responded dramatically with oxygen therapy,” Corbeil said. “To my knowledge, nobody was hospitalized (overnight).”

Fire officials said that if pepper gas was the culprit, Robinson-May was not the first business to experience its effects.

“In recent months, we’ve had other incidents in the county where (pepper gas) was released for pranks, or to get people out of the store,” Gil said.

The store was closed for about four hours as members of the hazardous-materials team conducted tests in the store. Fire officials said that tests for pepper spray were negative. But if the spray had already dissipated--perhaps through the store’s heating and cooling system--the gas would not be picked up, according to Gil.

Pepper spray, or oleoresin Capsicum, is a cayenne-based gas used by law-enforcement officials to immobilize suspects. Although pepper spray is illegal for civilian use in California, it is legal in other parts of the country, and law-enforcement officials said the spray has found its way to California through mail-order and door-to-door salesmen.

While law-enforcement officials in Los Angeles advocate its use, the American Civil Liberties Union has asked for a moratorium on the use of pepper spray.

In October, the Los Angeles Police Commission asked the U. S. Department of Justice and the state attorney general to study the effectiveness and potential side effects of pepper spray.