Latest National Post comment

Marni Soupcoff: Watch where you put that Taser [LINK]

(My comment, with a couple of minor typos corrected.)


Taser likes to highlight the "average" current of only 2 mA (which is well under the IEC 479-1 safety limit of 30 mA and purportedly provides a 15-to-1 safety margin).

Firstly, this neglects that the limit protects 95% of the normal population. 5% are more sensitive. And there are rumours about the affect of being drunk or on drugs.

Back to the 2 mA "average". EE's usually measure AC waveforms using RMS (like your household power is 120 volts RMS) - not average.

The earlier revisions of the specification sheet for the X26 taser mentioned 151 mA RMS. This information was curiously expunged from later revisions of the spec sheet. I note that 151, unlike 2, is greater than 30.

Where the barbs land on your body is has been shown to be a critical factor. All these demos and training sessions rarely if ever aim the X26 at the chest. All they accomplish is to wash-out the statistics by increasing the denominator of the ratio. I call them FAKE for short.

Also, the older model, the M26 was purported as being safe because it was high frequency (50,000 Hz) and very low duty cycle. The newer model, the X26 introduced in 2003, has a primary frequency of just 19 Hz (low frequency) and is 100% continuous duty cycle for each 5-second blast. Weird how they would walk away from two of the safety factors they had claimed were important for the previous model.

By the way - the apparent death rate per month associated with taser use started to go up beginning in 2003. Perhaps there are other factors than the introduction of the X26 at that time. I have no idea...

Taser claims that they can selectively affect your muscles without any risk whatsoever of affecting your heart. They claim to do this using a cleverly designed waveform. But the M26 and X26 waveforms are completely different so my BS detector keeps pegging when they make this claim.

It would be useful if these devices could be examined by CSA to determine how they, and their specified outputs, compare to the safety standards.