As Baby Boomer cardiac patients reach retirement age, they are being fitted with ever increasing numbers of pacemakers. At the same time Baby Boomers are also busy equipping themselves with non-lethal personal protection devices. The result is elevating concerns about cardiac patients using Tasers. Happily, there is good news.

The new generation of pacemakers is made strong enough to handle the electrical pulses generated by defibrillators whose power is several hundred times stronger than the Taser’s output. Tasers function well below what the federal government established as “safe” when approving devices such as the electric cattle fence.

At the University of Nebraska’s Medical Center, Dr. Robert Stratbucker performed a series of tests which determined that Tasers can not do any damage to a pacemaker or interrupt the heartbeat. The threshold for causing cardiac ventricular fibrillation is 10-50 joules. The Taser current is only 0.3 joules, which is far below the danger level.

What does this mean to the aging American population? Tasers are a dandy non-lethal solution for self-protection needs. They are lightweight, come in a broad array of styles, and can fit any budget. Taser makes sizes and shapes to fit the situation of men and women who are security conscious and they can be used by anyone, even – or maybe especially - cardiac patients.