The supplier of CMPD's newly purchased Tasers, has made a sudden change in the defense of their product's safety.
The reason is an article published by the American Heart Association's journal, "Circulation," which presents the first ever scientific, peer-reviewed evidence that Tasers can cause cardiac arrest and death.
The article, written by Electrophysiologist Dr. Douglas Zipes of Indiana University, marks the first time that a research paper with "peer review" has been published. Additionally "Circulation" published an editorial on the the use of Tasers.
The conclusions of Dr. Zipes' article, which looks at eight cases involving the TASER X26 ECD states: "ECD stimulation can cause cardiac electric capture and provoke cardiac arrest resulting from ventricular tachycardia/ventricular fibrillation. After prolonged ventricular tachycardia/ventricular fibrillation without resuscitation, asystole develops."
Taser International's website until recently stated, "There is no reliable published data that proves Taser ECDs (Tasers) negatively affect the heart."
With the publication of Dr. Zipes' article, the above statement has been removed, replaced with, a statement that quotes a May Department of Justice study, "While exposure to Conducted Energy Devices (CEDs) is not risk free, there is no conclusive medical evidence that indicates a high risk of serious injury or death from the direct effects of CED's (Tasers)."
An abstract of the article and the editorial can be found here and a related article in the New York Times can be found here.
7 comments:
You know, if you don't act like an idiot you don't have to worry about any of this.
The owners if this company have an obligation to inform users of the possible fatal consequences of using their product.
Just as makers of pharmaceuticals have to inform the public of possible side effects.
Problem is they don't want anyone to know there are possible fatal consequences as a direct result of using the taser.
Insurance and lawsuits...their bottom line would be affected.
I'm all for the proper use of the Taser. But CMPD dropped the ball on the training years ago. At some point someone failed to tell the cops zapping a guy again and again will kill him.
RoMo answer to the lack of training is to spend a million bucks and buy fancier Tasers that make it harder to kill someone.
So now that you can't keep zapping the guy on the ground you are going to have to get dirty, you might have to break a sweat have a little person to person contract.
Or you could just shoot them, might be less paperwork anyway.
Hey 8:42, if you have a problem with the way cops do business, don't call them next time one of meck county jail's frequent flyer animals is coming after ya. You also have no idea what these cops out here actually do on the street. Stay safe in your home, coward.
Hey 8:42, if you have a problem with the way cops do business, don't call them next time one of meck county jail's frequent flyer animals is coming after ya. You also have no idea what these cops out here actually do on the street. Stay safe in your home, coward.
8:42 Speaks the truth. Hot head cops are the trouble with tazers not the product.
It is true that unnecessary use and holding the trigger to long have created problems with taser use, but there are also other issues.
There have been studies showing random voltage variation, as well as voltage variation depending on the depth of penetration into the skin and dampness of the skin.
Another issue is that you cannot control where the taser will hit.
The heart issue is already covered in this article, but in addition to that, accidentally hitting someone in the temporal area can penetrate the bone and lacerate an artery with the probe. The probe would also be wet.
The bottom line is the person firing does not have as much control over the outcome as one would hope, so before the device is fired, the person doing so should strongly consider if the use is completely necessary.
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