OCT. 25–PALM BEAM, FL–The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is now allowing the use of implantable ID chips in humans, despite an FDA investigator’s recent public reservations about the devices.

The FDA has told chip manufacturer Applied Digital Solutions (ADS) that it will not regulate the VeriChip if it is used for “security, financial and personal identification or safety applications”.

But the agency has not determined whether the controversial chip can be used for medical purposes, including linking to medical databases.

ADS has principally marketed VeriChip as a life-saving tool, claiming that unconscious patients brought to an emergency room could be scanned to obtain their medical histories from it.

The company made international headlines by implanting three members of a Florida family with the VeriChip, which is slightly larger than a grain of rice and emits a 125KHz radio frequency signal that can be picked up by a scanner up to four feet away.