Georgian physician Archil Marshania says scientific basis for BBC protest chemical claims “very low”

Georgian physician Archil Marshania has dismissed a recent BBC report suggesting that a prohibited substance may have been used during last year’s dispersal of anti-government demonstrations in Tbilisi.

According to Marshania, the article “proves nothing” and relies on vague information and unverified assumptions.

In a detailed review of both the BBC article and a scientific study cited in public discussions, Marshania argues that the BBC’s most “sensational” claim is that it obtained information from “several high-level whistleblowers” who allegedly had access to a list of substances. However, he notes that the description of these materials is general and lacks specificity.

One of the codes mentioned in the BBC report, UN3439, is, according to Marshania, a broad classification that can correspond to numerous chemical compounds. Based on this code, a toxicologist cited by the BBC, Professor Christopher, speculates that the substance in question might be Camite. Yet, the report itself acknowledges that this is merely a hypothesis rather than evidence.

Marshania also points out that the scientific research referenced in discussions does not examine any banned substances and comes with significant limitations. These include a small sample size, lack of baseline ECG data, an imbalanced control group, multiple confounding factors, and possible statistical errors. For these reasons, he argues the study’s scientific reliability is “very low”, and even the authors refrain from making causal claims, noting only an association between tear gas exposure and ECG changes.

Summarizing his assessment, Marshania states that no solid or objective evidence exists to suggest that Georgian authorities used the banned chemical Camite during the protest dispersal. He concludes that the claims in the BBC report are speculative and unsupported by verifiable data.