Tasering people for science, thimerosal, carnivorous sponges and other Eurekalert! bits

I saw this in my morning Eurekalert! bin and I thought I’d share. Here’s the release, except for the last paragraph, which just gives details about the meeting where this is being presented:

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.

According to the author, Gary Vilke, MD, Professor of Clinical Medicine, Director, Clinical Research for Emergency Medicine, University of California, San Diego Medical Center, “Evaluating in-custody deaths following use of a Taser is a process that requires looking at the totality of the event. It is like putting a puzzle together. The data from this study help shape another piece of the puzzle by looking at the physiological effects of a single Taser activation in human subjects.”

Interesting, but not really unexpected stuff. If you Taser healthy people, they seem to do OK. I would assume that they would have already tested Tasers on people before they were put in practice, but if somebody wants to zap a few folks to be sure, more power to them. Literally, I guess.

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Another study today finds that there is still no link between thimerosal and autism. More details in the release, but in a nutshell:

The increase in the number of diagnosed cases of autism in recent years has sparked concern that environmental toxins may cause this complex disorder. However, a new University of Missouri-Columbia study concludes that exposure to Rh immune globulin preserved with mercury-containing thimerosal before birth was no higher for children with autism.

This is good news, obviously, but I doubt that it will persuade vaccine deniers and folks who are looking for a reason behind their kid’s autism. The former are largely chemophobic and irrational, but the I have a great deal of sympathy for the parents for the most part.

There is a lot of neat stuff in Eurekalert! every day, and it is a shame that there aren’t science writers enough to cover it all (let alone work on their own reporting). In this morning’s batch there’s health news, social news, political news and carnivorous sponges in the Weddel Sea. The last bit comes from this news release, which is a bit of a tease since it really doesn’t go into detail about the carnivorous sponges.

The very thought, however, fills me with slow, tidally-propelled dread.

UPDATE: OH SWEET MOTHER OF GOD.

Kill it! Kill it!