TASER Electronic Control Devices Review Of Safety Literature

John Webster, a professor of biomedical engineering at the University of
Wisconsin, takes a different position, dismissing as "not an issue" a connection
between stun guns and ventricular fibrillation. Webster conducted
a study into how close to the heart a stun gun strike would have to be to
produce ventricular fibrillation - less than 17 millimetres. "It's a few-permillion
kind of thing," Webster said in the National Review of Medicine of
the chances a stun gun probe could produce death. "You've got to have a
very thin person with a dart between his ribs right over his heart."
2.6. Human Studies Show that the TASER ECDs Do Not Affect the Heart
The first published human ECD study was performed under the auspices of the
Hennepin County (MN) Medical Center. 65 Adult volunteers (n=66, age 40.3 ± 6.8
years, 65 male, 1 female) had these cardiovascular histories: 6 hypertension, 6
hypercholesterolemia, 1 each of myocardial infarction and bypass grafting, heart
failure, coronary disease, transient ischemic attack, and diabetes with 51 reporting
no significant history. Each was shot in the back with standard TASER device
barbs and received the full 5-second application from the law enforcement model
TASER X26. Each had blood drawn before, immediately after, and at 16 and 24
hours post-exposure. Troponin I, potassium, creatine kinase, lactate, and myoglobin
were tested. A 12-lead EKG (electrocardiogram) was recorded in 32 randomly
chosen subjects at each venipuncture. A blinded cardiologist read all 128
EKGs in random order. 66
There were no significant changes in any of the serum markers. Thirty of the 32
EKG subgroup had normal EKGs for all 4 recordings. One subject had all 4 recordings
interpreted as left ventricular hypertrophy and another had occasional
sinus pauses in all 4 recordings. The TASER ECD did not affect cardiac or skeletal
serum markers or cause serial EKG changes. In other words, no sign of any
of the effects on the heart tested for was found in any of the volunteers with significant
medical conditions.
Other human studies, through the University of California at San Diego, found no
negative effects on the heart in the volunteers exposed to the TASER devices. 67-
69 Raymond Ideker, a recognized authority on VF, analyzed the TASER X26 output
and calculated that it should have a 28:1 safety margin for the typical adult
human. 70
Continuous echocardiographic monitoring of the human heart during ECD applications
show no cardiac capture — even in exercised subjects. 71
There Are No Negative Human or Dog Studies
Every study done with humans or dogs with TASER ECD discharges has found
no clinically significant deleterious effects directly caused by the ECD. There
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