Controversial

I am concerned that people with less understanding of electricity will go out and kill snakebite victims with misapplied shock treatments. Tazers use high voltage, but very low current. Car batteries are in the neighborhood of 12 volts but deliver very high current. Most people with experience in getting shocked report that car batteries "bite" much harder than household current! Electrical power is defined as the resistance times the square of the current. Current is defined as the voltage divided by the resistance. Thus power can be rewritten as current times voltage.

In other words, you can deliver a given amount of power via low current and high voltage or vice versa (high current and low voltage). While very young, I learned that current is dangerous. Especially high current. Voltage has the potential of being dangerous as well, but in the case of the common tazer if 25,000 volts or more are delivered at around a milli-amp of current, you are only delivering around 25 watts of power. (I'm not sure about those ratings, but I know tazers are VH voltage and VL current.) With a 12 volt car battery rated to deliver up to 600 amps, you are delivering up to 7,200 watts of power! Huge difference!

Offered by Roger.

I have been following the debate regarding shock treatment and was alarmed at the info passed on. Australia has the deadliest snakes in the world and having passed a first aid certificate course I found that the information flew in the face of what is being taught here, and could perhaps influence some Aussies to try this "shock" treatment.

Offered by Jan.

The guys on the report were snake hunters and it sounded like they were speaking from experience.

Offered by Steve.