From an article reporting that Taser International is now recommending that users of its products avoid aiming for the chest:
"When possible, avoiding chest shots with electronic control devices avoids the controversy about whether ECDs [electronic control devices] do or do not affect the human heart," said the bulletin said.
...
Taser International says the risk of a cardiac arrest in connection with Taser use is low, but if this were to happen after the weapon hits the chest area, it would place police and the company in the "difficult situation of trying to ascertain what role, if any, the Taser ECD could have played in a unique situation that cannot be replicated in human clinical safety evaluations."
The article makes no mention of the difficult situation faced by those who might suffer that cardiac arrest. Or their surviving family members and friends.
It is interesting to note that Taser Int. admits in this piece that it is impossible to test their death machine in the circumstances in which it is designed to be used.
it would place police and the company in the "difficult situation of trying to ascertain what role, if any, the Taser ECD could have played in a unique situation that cannot be replicated in human clinical safety evaluations."
I can't think of many products (any, actually) where the "research" on the product's effectiveness and safety that we're told about is so totally circular and self-referential. Has anyone but Taser Int (or someone whose research they fund) ever done research on tasers?
See, eg, this classic exposé of the Taser scam (and the complicity of our chiefs of police) from Alison a year ago. And yet the band plays on.