Turning back to RFIDs again for a moment –
Last week on MythBusters, the B-Team (Kari, Grant and Tory) demonstrated that human-implant RFIDs will not overheat and/or explode when exposed to the magnetism of an MRI device. Their demo included implanting a test chip into Kari’s arm and subjecting her to a brief MRI scan, and while the device was visible in the imaging, there were no harmful effects from the scan.
BUT! There is now compelling evidence that embedded RFIDs can cause malignant subcutaneous sarcomas in lab animals.
PLUS, if you read that article all the way through, you’ll find this interesting angle to the story: the FDA approved VeriChip’s RFIDs for human implantation in 2005. Two weeks after that approval, then-Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson (R-WI) resigned his Cabinet post and became a member of the Board of Directors of VeriChip. He received cash and stock options in that role, and then also received donations to his now-defunct presidential campaign fron VeriChip. The Project On Government Oversight has chastised Thompson, calling his involvement “unacceptable”.
While the animal studies to date are far from conclusive, they certainly indicate that additional research is warranted before ANYBODY gets one of these implanted into their body. As is so often the case, the FDA clearly put political considerations ahead of public safety considerations, quite likely motivated by the “revolving-door syndrome” at the highest level of the Bush Administration.
