After getting in contact with the distributors of these chips, (Bayer Healthcare), I received the email below from the manufacturers. It seems pretty consice and should give the hospital all they need to do a suitable risk assessment for a scan. As I have only forwarded it on today, I have no results as yet but will let you all know.
As for the reasons behind having a chip implanted... The best reason is that these things are available, so why not? Sure, they are primarily for IDing animals but there will come a time when there will be a choice between a passport/credit card/ID card/medical bracelet/etc., and a handy chip that can be implanted.
GoRdOn_B mentioned the Verichip. I looked into this when I first had a mind to implant myself and, at the time, this was a chip designed for human use to store medical info on an EPROM chip. (My chip, and most similar, are just a ROM chip that refers you to a database with specific information.). These were not available easily or cheaply in the UK at the time but would certainly have chosen it had things been different.
It also brought to mind some philosophical questions about ownership. On the forms that are completed to register the chip, I had to put my, "breed", as human and that I actually owned myself. (Therefore not being owned by anyone else!). Unfortunately, PetLog, (the database run by Bayer), would not allow me to register as they felt it was irresponsible of them and would encourage idiots like me to get implanted! I can't say I blamed them actually. It was not the purpose of their database to store human chip-ees!
Still, the experiment was a success and is still running. No ill effects have been experienced since implantation by a professional and reputable tatooist and body-piercer. The only hiccup has been this MRI but feel sure I'll have more to report soon on this one. (I wonder if the hospital will be curious enough to spend a little time on my scan for their own information? Ah. It's the NHS isn't it. Probably not then...! Still, their loss...!)
The email, (Note the last line. I seem to be getting a lot of the, "Whatever I've just said, if things go wrong, it's not my fault.", disclaimer.):
"Dear Morgan Rogers,
The microchip is made up of a biocompatible glass capsule containing a ferrite rod and copper coil with a silicon chip.
The following information has been received from the manufacturer DATAMARS:
We inform you that together with the Swiss clinic Ars Medica (Gravesano, Switzerland) we investigated the behaviour of various types of transponder (in the high-frequency and low-frequency range) during magnetic resonance treatment of patients.
The aim of this study was to detect any mutual interference between the transponders and the MRI scanners, and quantify its effects.
For the Low Frequency transponders with a ferrite coil (typical for animal identification) following results have been noticed:
1) these transponders are lightly attracted by the magnetic field of the MRI equipment which tends to align the ferrite with the magnetic lines. Bigger is the ferrite, stronger is the effect. The intensity of the equipment used for the test was of 1 Tesla.
A stronger magnetic field will certainly increase this effect.
2) The transponder creates important artifacts on the image. A dark shadow is clearly visible around the transponder that obscures part of the image.
3) A small and temporary modification of the resonance frequency has been observed. The transponder is anyway readable and the animal code is not modified. The effect on the resonance frequency disappeared after about 1 day.
4) No heating up of the pieces and no damages on the MRI system have been observed.
Based on this study we suppose that we have no risks for animals implanted with Tracer microchips (both the polymer Tracer Advance and bioglass Tracer Classic) to go through an MRI scanner.
It is to be noticed that Datamars doesn't undertakes any responsibility outside the animal application field.
Best Regards
Animal Health"
There you go... Thanks for reading. I'll update soon and try to find the photo with fresh marks so you can see where it is implanted.
M
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