[[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 : Dr Boseman’s research consistently supports TASER International …. “Taking a Taser shot to the chest is no more dangerous than to other body parts”, a Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center study has found. TASER International, which makes the devices, issued a “training bulletin” in 2009 that recommended law-enforcement officers target the […]
[[SUMMARY / COMMENTS : Points out some of several of the most contentious issues in research on tasers … How it was launched with minimal scientific data – with just $14,000 spent on preliminary research – the $21-million stockholders’ payout for inadequate safety studies, the decision of a California judge of $10-million in damages […]
[[SUMMARY / COMMENTS: The TruthNotTasers (TNT) blog titles this report “TASER – The Whole Story” – and police psychologist Mike Webster directly attacks numerous serious fault-lines in “taser science” and how police have been misled about tasers. We recommend reading the whole 3100-word text. A few phrases are in bold: these were highlined in our source. […]
[[SUMMARY / COMMENT: Canadian report of the US research by Douglas Zipes: a peer-reviewed study with 8 cases (7 deaths) showing definitively that being shocked with a Taser can cause death through cardiac arrest. “Law enforcement, anybody who uses Tasers, needs to be aware that cardiac arrest may occur,” he said. “Try to avoid a […]
[[SUMMARY / COMMENT: Medical experts said on Monday that the new report, published online on Monday in the journal Circulation, makes clear that electrical shocks from Tasers, which shoot barbs into the clothes and skin, can in some cases set off irregular heart rhythms, leading to cardiac arrest. The author of the study, Dr. Douglas […]
[[SUMMARY / COMMENT: Douglas Zipes research, showing “the first ever scientific, peer-reviewed evidence that Tasers can cause cardiac arrest and death.” Zipes is a well respected cardiologist and this research was reported in a peer-reviewed journal, so recognized as “scientific”. The article also reports TASER Inc.’s rebuttal of the research and an abstract of the […]
[[SUMMARY / COMMENT : Can the taser dart cause brain injury? Here is a French report of the case of a 27 year old man who was injured by a Taser gun device which penetrated the frontal part of the skull and damaged the underlying frontal lobe. “We also observed the length of a Taser […]
USA – Police website: “Special protocol for ExDS [“Excited Delirium”] response is valuable liability shield [Tasers appropriate in this context]” (2102-04-12) [[SUMMARY / COMMENT. The PoliceOne.com website informs US police officers that “the symptoms and dangers of excited delirium” – mysteriously labelled ExDS, as if this makes it sound more scientific – “now well-publicized and […]
[[SUMMARY /COMMENTS: Two elements in the press release merit attention: (1) 5 significant orders of taser products, of which 2 by unnamed “international law enforcement agencies” (why so much discretion?). A larger proportion – about 16,000 – of the 5 sales-orders are for cartidges, which sell at about $27 each ($432,000). (2) A completely spurious […]
[[SUMMARY /COMMENTS : NYCLU Analysis Finds Misuse of Tasers by Police Across NY State; Police officers throughout New York State are consistently misusing and overusing Tasers. “Taking Tasers Seriously: The Need for Better Regulation of Stun Guns in New York“, just published , analyzes 851 Taser incident reports from eight police departments across the state as well […]
[[SUMMARY /COMMENTS : A case of “false information and data-manipulation” typical of TASER Inc.: This “new site” – taser.fr – has been on-line for some 4 years, so it’s hardly being “launched”. The layout has been revamped and the information misleading at the extreme: (1) the real-time “lives saved by taser” (80,000!); “taser safer than […]
[[ Summary / Comments: Research bias in whether tasers are dangerous; “Looking at 50 human or animal studies on Taser safety, researchers found that 23 of them had been funded by the manufacturer, Taser International, Inc, or done by scientists with financial ties to the company. Twenty-two of those studies, or 96 percent, concluded the […]
[[ Summary / CommentsThe Heart.org reports on the UCSF studies of taser safety depending upon funding sources – independent research shows much greater danger, moreover “studies sponsored by TASER International might have been less likely to be published if they found possible harm than if they found safety.” See table in this report.]] By Editor, […]
[[ Summary / Comments: New Scientists article raising many disturbing issues about deaths resulting from use of taser … in USA, UK, with comment by Oliver Sprague, Amnesty’s UK arms programme director.]] UPDATE: A man has died in Barrow, UK, after being shot with a Taser during his arrest on Tuesday night. He felt unwell […]
[[SUMMARY / COMMENTS. Independent research study by San Francisco University heart specialists clearly shows bias in scientific reports distributed by TASER Inc. They looked at 50 studies into the health effects of Tasers. About half, or 23 studies, were sponsored by the company. It revealed 96 per cent of the Taser-funded studies found the […]
[[SUMMARY / COMMENTS : The TASER Inc. spin … A blog put out by TASER Inc. decries the association of tasers with deaths – this is part of the campaign organized by the corporatoion to clear its name. Attacking Amnesty International for “skimming” headlines, while the taser has onlt been mentioned as in any way […]
[[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 University of California at San Francisco Heart doctors uncover bias in Taser safety studies: l. Of the 50 articles studied, 23 were funded by Taser International, Inc. or written by an author affiliated with the company. Nearly all (96 percent) of the Taser-supported articles concluded the devices were either “unlikely harmful” […]