Have Ocean Guardian products been tested as safe for humans?Updated a year ago
The field generated by your Ocean Guardian device, when used in accordance with the instructions contained in the instruction manual supplied with each unit, poses no known danger to the user, to sharks or to the environment. The field can be detected by humans if the electrodes come into very close contact with the skin, or in close proximity to the skin.
Direct contact with, or very close proximity to the antenna, may cause twitching of the surface muscles of the skin, in time with the slow pulsing of the signal. The conductive field readily travels through seawater, it being a better conductor than the human body. The research has shown the field tends to surround the body rather than penetrate it, and the scientific research shows that the type of signal generated by the Ocean Guardian electrical field does not pass through body tissues, unlike radio waves or microwaves that readily penetrate the body, and therefore it poses no known health problems for users.
WARNING: A large pulsing current is emitted from the Ocean Guardian's antenna to produce the protective electric field. Anyone with any electronic medical device (EMD) or implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs) such as a pacemaker, who is pregnant, or has a health condition which could be affected by the electric field, should not use the device. Some examples of health conditions include heart disease, a history of heart problems, peripheral vascular disease, stroke, a history of fainting or epilepsy, or lung disease. Users unintentionally being in close proximity, or in contact with the antenna, may possibly suffer muscle spasms in varying degrees; we recommend that users may need to make adjustments to limit contact in these situations.
No electrical device manufacturer can remove all of the risk of interfering with an EMD, particularly devices that generate or transmit energy like microwaves, mobile phones, power generators, transformers, power tools, along with marine equipment such as radars, EBIRB's, PLB's, fish finders and of course electrical shark deterrents.
We refer EMD users to this reference website on safety precautions for EMD's, these safety precautions exist across a range of products in the general public community which a person wearing an EMD could be exposed to. Electrical shark deterrents fall within the potentially distributive items like electrical pet containment systems, electrical fences, some power tools, etc. Awareness of these risks assists EMD users to be alert to the types of devices to avoid.
Like most of the potentially disruptive items, the risk increases with extended periods of time and close proximity to them. In the case of an electrical shark deterrent in an ocean environment, it is difficult to see a scenario where an EMD user would be located unaware, and/or for an extended period of time, near an electrical deterrent. Our devices are used primarily by individual divers and surfers, neither of which are usually located in a beach/sand environment, or next to someone for an extended period. Also noting the devices do not function out of the water, they must be submerged to be active.
Over the past twenty years electrical shark deterrents have without doubt saved the lives of many people. Providing normal EMD safety precautions are taken for potentially disruptive items, such as not wearing a device such as ours, and general safety warnings provided to EMD users are adhered to, electrical shark deterrents present minimal risk to public safety.