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DANGERS OF TASERS UNKNOWN
The dangers posed by tasers are not yet known. The medical literature contains few studies of tasers. A PUBMED search in January 2008 reveals only 34. Only a handful of these actually conducted laboratory tests and these not on humans, but on pigs. The best of these 34 is probably an article in THE LANCET in 2001 which is highly condemnatory of tasers. Research sponsored by taser manufacturers is suspect due to the obvious conflicts of interest involved. Independent research which might cast light on the health dangers of tasers to humans is absent. It is also impossible to conduct. No research ethics committee at any reputable university in any part of the world would allow such research due to the harm it may pose to the human subjects involved.
The list of possible physical injuries due to tasers includes: cardiac arrest, respiratory failure, disruption to pace-makers, eye damage, blood vessel damage, spinal injuries, cell membrane disruption, skeletal cell damage, cataracts, testicular torsions, miscarriages, injuries to the central nervous system, and death. It has been asserted by some that the presence of alcohol or drugs in the system of the “target” may increase the health dangers. This too would have to be independently tested, but again impossible. University research ethics committees would not approve a study involving subjects taking high doses of drugs (some illegal) even if they were not to then be jolted by 50,000 volts of electricity. Independent studies would require that some subjects receive multiple taser blasts since the 150 to 200 fatal incidents of tasers have often involved repeated blasts of the taser (sometimes up to twelve blasts). At least some studies would have to require that some subjects receive multiple blasts. Establishing the lethal dose would pose a huge problem for ethical research. Possible psychological injuries due to tasers do not seem to have been investigated at all. The short term and long term psychological effects of tasers are unknown. What is the effect on brain functioning, reaction time, memory, learning, mood, emotion, and so on? It is known that being struck by lightning may do psychological harm as well as physical harm. Subtle and not so subtle psychological damage may emerge years later. Thus, the proper independent studies testing the dangers of tasers would require longitudinal studies over significant lengths of time (several years at least). It has been asserted that tasers are a non-lethal police weapon in police work (as difficult and dangerous as that work is). Research suggests we do not at present have the independent published studies in reputable medical journals to know if this is true.
Amnesty International asserts that tasers, if they are to be used at all, should only be used where lethal force would be justified given international protocols. But this has not been done in any jurisdiction where tasers have been introduced into police work. In one study in Portland, Oregon reported by the American Civil Liberties Union, it was found that in only 23 per cent of cases where tasers were used would lethal force have been justified. It would seem that where tasers are used, they are overused.
The U.N. Committee on Torture concluded in November 2007 that tasers constitute a form of torture. Police who seek to use tasers thus risk international prosecution as torturers whilst their governments risk embarrassment or worse. Nations should consider very closely if they wish to align themselves with the world’s torturing nations instead of with the nations opposed to all forms of human torture.
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WHERE THERE’S SMOKE . . .
Smoking may be linked to impotence. In a study of 195 impotent men, it was found that men who smoke a pack of cigarettes a day for five years are 15 per cent more likely to have penile disease than non-smokers. After 20 years, they are more than four times as likely to have penile artery disease--blocking blood supply and interfering with ability to obtain adequate erections. So finds Dr. Max Rosen of the Boston University School of Medicine.
Smoking may be linked to incontinence. In a study of 600 incontinent and non-incontinent women, 35 per cent of incontinent women were current smokers. Only 24 per cent of non-incontinent women were smokers. Smoking women had a three and a half times greater risk of developing stress incontinence than women who had not. So finds Dr. Richard Bump of the Medical College of Virginia.
Smoking has been linked to rectal cancer. Yet the link between smoking and colon cancer is less clear. A study of 1,242 women diagnosed with colorectal cancer were followed for eight years by Dr. Electra Paskett and colleagues from the Division of Population Studies at Ohio State University and published in the 21 November 2007 issue of the JOURNAL OF THE NATIONAL CANCER INSTITUTE.
Smoking more than triples the risk of developing squamous cell carcinoma, one of the most common forms of skin cancer, a Netherlands study has shown. Dr. Jan Nico Bouwes Bavinck of the Leiden University Medical Center headed the study.
For people under 30, smoking does not prevent typical age-related weight gain. Despite this, the tobacco industry has named cigarettes “thins” and “slims” in an attempt to capitalize on weight-conscious young people who believe that beginning smoking will enable them to control their body weight. This is the finding of Dr. Robert C. Klesges from the University of Memphis Prevention Center in Memphis, Tennessee and colleagues. Obstacles to quitting smoking and motives for quitting smoking vary with age. Smokers over age 65 reported their chief reasons for quitting smoking were physician pressure and stress due to a major health problem. Smokers under age 65 reported their chief reasons for quitting smoking were the financial costs of tobacco products and tobacco odor.
Watching an actor smoke in a movie may make smokers more likely to continue smoking in the future and make non-smokers more favorably disposed toward smoking. Such is the finding of Dr. Sonya Dal Cin of the Norris Cotton Cancer Center of Dartmouth Medical School and colleagues and published in the July 2007 issue of PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE.
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