What the FDA Won't Tell you about the VeriChip

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BRAVE NEW WORLD

What the FDA Won’t Tell You about the VeriChip

By Dale Hurd

CBN News Sr. Reporter

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December 10, 2004

 

 

 

 

CBN.com – (CBN News) - A little electronic capsule, smaller than a dime, could

be one of the biggest technological advances in how we share and store private

medical records. It may also be one of the most controversial.

 

Known as the VeriChip, it is a microchip that is implanted under a person's

skin, and then scanned with a special reader device to reveal important medical

data about that person.

 

Applied Digital, the Florida-based company that makes the VeriChip, hopes the

implant will revolutionize how doctors obtain medical information, particularly

in emergency situations. Theoretically, if a person can't speak, medics could

scan that person and quickly be linked to a database that would provide crucial

information like the patient's identity, blood type and drug allergies.

 

Dr. Csaba Magassi, a plastic surgeon in Northern Virginia, is among a nationwide

network of doctors who are ready and waiting to implant the VeriChip into

willing patients. His office receives calls daily from people inquiring about

the chip.

 

Dr. Magassi said, " If you are in an auto accident, [and] you are unconscious,

they could scan you, know exactly who you are; your medical history can easily

be printed out onto the hospital record. "

 

Dr. Magassi added, " If a patient comes in requesting the VeriChip, I usually

tell them it takes between two and five minutes to place the device in place. A

needle which contains the VeriChip is inserted. The needle pushes the device

through, and it is implanted permanently. Put a bandaid on and you are done. "

 

Dr. Magassi demonstrated the procedure for CBN News on an apple. Once the

microchip was inserted, the hand-held scanner read the number on the chip using

radio frequency waves. Think of it as a human barcode.

 

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the VeriChip implant for medical

use in humans in October, a huge victory for Applied Digital.

 

In an effort to jumpstart interest, the company launched the " Get Chipped "

campaign. It is offering a discount to the first few hundred people who get the

implant, and also plans to donate hundreds of scanners to the nation's trauma

units to promote use of the VeriChip.

 

But in a letter obtained by CBN News from the FDA to the VeriChip makers, the

microchip is not completely safe. In fact, the letter lists a whole host of

health risks associated with the device, including " adverse tissue reaction, "

" electrical hazards " and " MRI incompatibility. "

 

Applied Digital and the Food and Drug Administration refused our requests for an

interview to discuss these risks.

 

Consumer privacy advocate Katherine Albrecht said, " There are millions of people

that have read the press reports about all the positives of this technology, but

really have no idea about its dangers. "

 

Albrecht strongly opposes the VeriChip for the physical risks it poses, as well

as the privacy risks. She has been called " the Erin Brokovich of RFID chips. "

 

On her Web site, www.spychips.com, Albrecht reveals the potential dangers of the

VeriChip and other radio frequency identification methods.

 

Albrecht said, " There's a very serious concern that, already, engineers and

people who think along those lines are already thinking like hackers and

criminals -- they're already starting to say, how can this system be

compromised, how can it be abused? When you are dealing with a radio frequency

device, by design, it is transmitting info using invisible radio waves at a

distance. In this case, that distance is only a couple of inches or a couple of

feet so it’s not a huge distance, but it means that anyone who can get within a

couple of inches or a few feet of you, even with a reader device they have

hidden in a backpack or a purse, would be able to scan that number, obtain that

info and potentially duplicate it. "

 

And it is not just private medical information at stake. The microchip implant

technology has been around for several years now, and has been used for a

variety of different applications.

 

Thousands of chips have been implanted in pets by veterinarians for

identification purposes. Livestock is now chipped to track things like mad-cow

disease. Manufacturers are putting chips in products like clothing and shoes for

marketing research.

 

In Mexico, the attorney general and his top aides were chipped for security

purposes. And, in Spain at the Baja Beach Club, patrons can get a microchip with

their financial information implanted, so they can pay for their cocktails with

a swipe of the arm. As these pictures seem to suggest, getting chipped is fun

and painless.

 

Applied Digital also launched a brand new application for the chip last year

called the " VeriPay. " This implant would hold all of a person's financial

information. Rather than swipe a card or pay cash, consumers would scan their

wrists for purchases. And, if a swipe of the wrist becomes too troublesome,

there are already prototypes made of doorway portals that can simply scan a

person and their purchases as they walk through the door.

 

Allbrecht said, " I think there is a very real concern that, down the road, such

a chip would become mandatory. And not necessarily initially, but it would be

voluntary, in the same way let’s say as credit cards or a drivers license is

voluntary. No one forces you to have a driver’s license or to have a cell phone,

but yet the vast majority of people do, because it is very difficult to function

in a normal society without it. "

 

For now, though, a microchip implant is voluntary. Only a few thousand chips

have been sold and only a fraction of those have been implanted in humans.

 

For someone who wants an implant for medical purposes, Dr. Magassi and others

are standing by. Magassi says, " If they want it, God love ‘em. I'll put it in.

It's as simple as that. "

 

The VeriChip just recently made its debut in a Miami, Florida nightclub, where

patrons had the opportunity to " Get Chipped, " much like the Baja Beach club

patrons in Spain.

 

 

 

By Dale Hurd

CBN News Sr. Reporter

 

December 10, 2004

 

http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/news/041210a.asp

 

 

 

 

 

 

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