TASER Electronic Control Devices Review Of Safety Literature

electrodes are elsewhere on the body, as they are in the large majority of cases
when the TASER device is used, the percentage of applied current that traverses
the heart is even less. Also, drive-stun applications delivers even less current below
the surface of the body.
Figure 10. ECD current tends to follow the grain of the skeletal muscles. Very little penetrates
the body below the muscles. (Note: this illustration is not to scale, nor does it illustrate
the optimal electrical impulse vulnerable probe positions). Used with permission of
IEEE Spectrum.
MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) studies show that electrical current has an
additional impediment passing between the intercostal (between the ribs) muscles
and the cardiac muscles, as their fibers are perpendicular to one another. 79
Careful computer modeling studies show that very little current goes more than
1 cm below the skin. 43,80,81 The safety factors are summarized in Table 3.
2.8 Longer TASER ECD Applications Do Not Cause Arrhythmias
VF can be induced by sufficiently strong electrical current flowing through the
body. The current that is required to cause VF is dependent on the length of time
for which the current is applied, but it is well established that the induction
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