tasers

Ever since getting a pacemaker i have had a huge fear of tasers and it seems like in the news all i hear about is how cops are going taser crazy- using tasers on school aged children, old ladies at routine traffic stops and anyone who protests them without hesitation. Do they know this so called "safe" device can cause damage to pace maker patients- and me being 22 am proof that you never know who may have one. What are your thoughts on the increased use of tasers? Do you think they can damage pacers / people with pacers?

4 Comments

I worry too

by janetinak - 2009-12-07 02:12:25

& I am sure if we can't use a TENS unit we sure would have problems with a Taser. I asked a cop son of a friend & he just smiled, I guess that is because I am a gray haired old gal. But my plan is if they ever ask me to stop or whatever I sure will. If they look like they are going to pull out the taser I am going to start yelling that I have a PM & they'll kill me & my estate will sue them. Hah. Guess best approach is stay under the law & order radar & do nothing wrong ever.

Janet

tasers

by Tracey_E - 2009-12-07 06:12:04

My thoughts are they're better than getting shot so I think it's great that more law enforcement carries them.

Tasers are perfectly safe for a pm, but you still don't wanna get tasered, lol, it hurts. I know quite a few cops who carry them and have one friend who sells personal tasers for women and trains them to use them. I don't know what you've heard but cops use their tasers judiciously. Every cop who carries one has been tasered himself in training, they do not use them without good reason! If you listen when a cop tells you something, you won't have a problem. When you hear of someone innocent getting tasered, it's usually because they ignored a cop telling them to stop or whatever.

Effects Of Taser On Pacemaker

by SMITTY - 2009-12-07 10:12:46

The ADVANCED TASER’s output is well below the level established as “safe” by the federal government in approving such devices as the electrified cattle fence. In a medical study, Dr. Robert Stratbucker tested the M26 at the University of Missouri and confirmed that the T-Wave does not interrupt the heartbeat or damage a pacemaker. Any modern pacemaker is designed to withstand electrical defibrillator pulses that are hundreds of times stronger than the ADVANCED TASER’s output. The ADVANCED TASER current of 1.76 Joules is well below the 10-50 joule threshold above which cardiac ventricular fibrillation can occur.

For much more on this subject go to Google and ask for effects of taser on pacemaker.

Inappropriate use of Tasers

by ElectricFrank - 2009-12-08 03:12:25

The potential for harm from a taser is not limited to damaging the pacemaker or causing it to deliver the wrong pace. If the taser happens to make contact with the chest wall immediately over the pacer itself, the energy can easily flow into the metal case of the pacer, follow the leads to the heart and deliver a sizable shock. For the taser to have enough energy to disable skeletal muscles it certainly has enough to affect the heart which is also a muscle.

I raised this question with Taser International at the Consumer Electronics Show last Jan in Las Vegas. My question as an engineer resulted in my being cut off from finishing.

As for the common response that it is better to be tasered than shot, the real issue is that there are law enforcement people who have no business carrying a gun or taser. There are also the majority who can effectively use either and choose between them.

By the way there is an effective countermeasure against a taser. Wear an electrically conductive vest under clothing, which effectively short circuits the current. I can't believe that the bad guys don't already know about this.

I'll be going to the Consumer Electronics Show again this Jan and will see what the latest is.

frank

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