[[SUMMARY / COMMENTS : Summary of the just-released “Health effects of conducted electric weapons” report. Focus on the conclusion that respiratory and cardiac risks are limited due to a lack of high-quality evidence; still, the study states that “while fatal complications are biologically plausible, they would be extremely rare.” 9000 tasers in use in Canada, […]
[[SUMMARY / COMMENTS: Key paragraph of a 30-page report: “All of the animals in both control stress groups survived the study and were euthanized four hours after exposures. Three animals in the multiple exposure experimental group survived and were euthanized four hours after the exposures. Two animals survived 3 hours – 3.5 hours after the […]
[[SUMMARY /COMMENTS:”Does the taser Kill?” this article asks. Quite simply, as Douglas Zipes, a widely-respected electrodardiologist specializing in heart rhythms says: “Yes”, to which TASER CEO Rick Smith, found Loitering with Intent to Sell Weapons at an Association of Chiefs of Police Conference in Chicago (Where else?), replies “No”. Pigs, OK, but human No. As […]
[[SUMMARY / COMMENTS: This is TASER Inc.’s list of scientific research conducted on tasers (known in academia as a “literature review”), a 24-page pdf document with references to 360 different studies. Those identified as “partial or full funded by TASER International” contain an annotation of “[[” (not very visible). 78/360 (21%) are so designated, and […]
[[SUMMARY / COMMENTS: An important methodological study presented at the Heart Rhythm Society’s 32nd Annual Scientific Sessions in May 2011. In Sept 2010, UCSF cardiologists analyzed the results of all 119 empirical studies of taser safety in the MEDLINE data base. Of those meeting the criteria for this research, 23% were funded by TASER Inc.: […]
[[SUMMARY / COMMENTS: Nick Dial, a certified Arizona police officer specialized in Homeland Security with taser experience presents a particularly coherent – and lengthy – argument concerning many of the problems of taser use by the US police. Interesting because he is a police-officer “speaking out”. Nick Dial provides clear examples to illustrate his case […]
[[SUMMARY / COMMENTS: This is the abstract of an academic article available on the official site apprently contradicting the cardiac dangers critics ascribe to tasers. Much of the TASER-sponsored research is done at the Lompoc Valley Medical Center, Lompoc, Califormia (pop.41,000), hardly a major medical research centre, without a medical school. TASER-financed researchers performed a […]
[[SUMMARY /COMMENTS : An important analysis, the official position statement, presented by the president of the Ligue des droits et libertés, of the Quebec Coalition pour le retrait de Taser at the April 2010 Montreal Public Safety Commission’s public hearings on police access to tasers. Six major issues are raised: (1) the background of the […]
[[SUMMARY / COMMENTS: The author, Jeffrey Ho, “independent medical consultant to TASER International”, which means he gets money from TASER without actually being on the payroll, argues that “bad logic, media sensationalism, and the use of animal vs. human research” have created confusion about the use of the taser and sudden death”. He doesn’t mention […]
GlobalShock: Article in the Journal of Traumatology (2007) by researchers at the Chicago Traumatology Unit, using the taser X26 on pigs as subjects. Two deaths occurred in the six experimental subjects because of ventricular fibrillation. Andrew J. Dennis, DO, Daniel J. Valentino, MD, Robert J. Walter, PhD, Kimberly K. Nagy, MD, Jerry Winners, BS, Faran […]
GlobalShock: Article in the Journal of Traumatology (2007) by researchers at the Chicago Traumatology Unit. using the X26, with pigs as subjects. Potentially fatal ventricular fibrillation was found in two measures (vectors) used. Daniel J. Valentino, MD, Robert J. Walter, PhD, Andrew J. Dennis, DO, Bosko Margeta, MD, Frederic Starr, MD, Kimberly K. Nagy, MD, […]
[[SUMMARY / COMMENTS : In 1996, Taser hired Robert Stratbucker, a Nebraska doctor and farmer, to test the weapon. Dr. Stratbucker, who is now Taser’s part-time medical director, shocked a pig 48 times with shocks as large as those from the M26. The pig suffered no heart damage. Three years later, the company hired […]