Still, there has been some controversy regarding the use of the Taser in controlling

subjects in police custody, including reports of deaths. In a paper to be presented at

the 2007 Society for Academic Emergency Medicine (SAEM) Annual Meeting,

preliminary results of Taser exposure on healthy subjects will show that no short-term

effects were observed.

Human volunteers from law enforcement agreed to receive a single, 5 second

exposure from a Taser X26, a model reported to be used by more than 30% of police

agencies in the United States. Cardiovascular and blood parameters were measured

before exposure and for 60 minutes afterwards. Systolic and diastolic blood pressures,

heart rate, calcium, sodium, potassium, bicarbonate and lactate levels and blood pH were

measured in 32 subjects. Systolic blood pressure decreased after the Taser due to a likely

heightened anxiety before the test. Other measures changed slightly, but there were no

clinically significant or lasting changes in the subjects noted during the one-hour

observation period.