The Chip with the Chip in it

RFID (Radio Frequency Identification Devices) are touted for finding lost animals and people to saving lives. How can an implanted chip save a life? All your medical information is on/in it...and all a doctor has to do is to tune in to the radio frequency that is emitted from the chip to access your vital information.

Hmmm. That sounds good, doesn't it? Well, the largest chip maker is touting those very qualities as the reason that everyone should get chipped. But what is conveniently being overlooked is a report from Dow Chemical that showed that tests done in 1990 showed that the implants were linked to malignant tumors in test animals. A retired Dow Chemical toxicologist told the Associated Press "The transponders were the cause of the tumors." He didn't exactly mince words, did he?

The FDA has approved the chips. That doesn't surprise us as the approval of the chip took place just two weeks before Tommy Thompson moved from being secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (which oversees the FDA), to being appointed five months later to the board of directors of VeriChip Corporation. VeriChip is the leading brand name of RFID's. Of course, as a board member, Mr. Thompson receives cash and stock options of VeriChip.

Recently, the American Medical Association approved the chip. When the Associated Press asked them if they had seen the Dow Chemical report, the answer was "No". No one seems to be talking about, or even aware of the Dow chemical report that these radio frequency chips are the cause of malignant tumors. Why not? These chips are big, BIG business...and they have many plans for them.

Here are just a few ways in which the chips can be used: storage of your medical records, storage of all of your financial records so that you do not carry cash or have access to your cash (all transactions would be done through a national database), 'members of clubs' would use it as a way to recognize elite members, police forces could chip and track persons who had once been imprisoned...and of course, they can track lost dogs ...as well as people.

Privacy issues aside, some cancer specialists who reviewed the Dow Chemical study said that they would not allow any of their family members to be chipped until further study was done on the long-term safety of the device. It appears to us that the chip...has a chip!