CPC #18: IMPLANTABLE HARDWARE IN A 5G WORLD?

Many trauma patients require implantable hardware for treatment of their spinal and bone injuries. One of the concerns patients frequently raise is whether this may cause a problem at TSA airport screening checkpoints (Transportation Safety Administration).

The answer in the past was probably “yes” because screening used more metal detection and less RF scanners.  If you travel into a country like Mexico regularly as I do, metal detection is still the defacto screen because it is cheaper than the new RF scanners used in the USA and EU.   Papers have shown in a 2G-3G dominated world in the mid 2000's  that approximately half of implants can trigger the metal detectors.  Once triggered the patient is slowed down and subject to a pat down search.  I've even had patients tell me that the TSA agents have asked about their scars. Many patients ask me for letters about their surgery but I inform them that letters from me won’t help.  I have a few TSA agents as patients and they told me do not bother writting these letters.  They are trained not to pay any attention to them.   It turns out that overall, 38% are detected when the scanner is set to low sensitivity and 52% at high sensitivity.  I have found certain airports vary their settings often based upon flight origination and the type of people on the flight register.

Here is a more detailed breakdown:

• Lower extremity hardware is detected 10 times more often than upper extremity or spine implants
• Older spinal implants are more easily found because of their bulk but not the type of metal used by the implant makers.  If it is a multi-level fusion detection is more likely.  
• 90% of total knee and total hip replacements are detected
• Upper extremity implants such as shoulder, wrist and radial head replacements are rarely detected
• Plates, screws, IM nails, and wires usually escape detection because they are smaller.
• Cobalt-chromium and titanium implants trigger alarms more often than stainless steel.  This one surprised me because older implants are often made of stainless steel.  The newer implants use the transition metals and this usage is likely going to cause patients a bigger problem in a 5G world because of how RF/microwaves interact with the D shell electrons of these metals.  

I am a bit concerned about this topic because it is one aspect of medicine that most physicians will not link to the new 5G networks and their patients content of metal.  Why do I say this? 

Recently, the FDA is requiring a new class warning and other safety measures for all gadolinium-based contrast agents (GBCAs) for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) concerning gadolinium remaining in patients' bodies, including the brain, for months to years after receiving these drugs. This warning also makes me very concerned about retain metal nanoparticles in the skin via tattoo's.  The image below shows the metal partcoles reacting the the RF pulses and magnetic field of the 1.0 Tesla magnet in one of my patients.  You can see the shielding effect on the L4-5 and L5-S1 disc adjacent to the metal particles embedded in her skin as a result.  The surface topology effect of metal in a 5G world is going to be serious risk.   

HYPERLINK #1 

HYPERLINK #2 

Most metal implants are left in our patients post operatively so they act as a reservoir of metal.  In the most recent FDA release on Gadolinium retention, the gadolinium has not been directly linked to adverse health effects in patients with normal kidney function, and FDA has concluded that the benefit of all approved GBCA's continues to outweigh any potential risks.  This warning was made in a 3G/4G world.  I am concerned that the same will not be true in a 5G world.

If any patient knows that their implant triggers the detectors, they have two options:  request a patdown search (smartest move), or volunteer to go through the full body millimeter wave scanner with its own risks for the surfaces. This device uses RF radiation to look at everything from the skin outwards, and will not “see” the implant deeply embedded and is probably the preferred choice.  There are reports that this RF radiation can cause DNA breaks and its attendant problems.   

If they choose to go through the metal detector and trigger it, they are required to have a patdown in most locations. Choosing to go through the body scanner after setting off the detector is no longer an allowed option according to the TSA in 2018.  

Spinal implants of the older type (screws and rods) are almost always a trigger to metal detectors and now we have new data that these implants can be a point source of heavy metal leakage into tissues.  This really concerns me in a 5G world and it is why this CPC is being released to you now 12 months before 5G becomes operationally globally.  Airports already are operating in 5G mode so this is why I focus in on travelers and it is also why I hate traveling now internationally.    For this reason I have told many of my older fusion patients if they want hardware removal as we go into a 4G/5G world I will now consider it for them.  I did not believe in previous years that the risk benefit ration favored patients but now I do.    

These are mito-hacks few people consider today, but I have a sense in a 5G world they will become popular.  I believe it will be quite hard to find physicians willing to remove metal implants because they will not understand the bio-physical risks versus the medical bio-mechanical risks of the patient.  This means the patient will have to do their due diligence and make their own decisions that may be incongruent with their surgeons.

Internal metals likely will act as an antenna for the highly powered 5G waves.  I believe these patients might experience more autoimmune conversion, cancers, and electro-hypersensitivity.   The beauty of life resides deeply in bio-physics of materials and their interaction with light frequencies in the electromagnetic spectrum.  

The secrets of life lies in the extent which seemingly complex and unrelated phenomena can be explained and correlated through a high level of abstraction by a set of laws which are amazing in their simplicity. Those laws are viewable to eyes who observe MRI's daily; the wonders of the universe and of life are present in every image.  The key is learning to see what you observe in that picture or paying attention to patient complaints around their metal implants when 5G is operational.  

We now have some data that placing a long titanium or metal pin down through the middle of a bone to stabilize it is linked with a much higher increase in the amount of metal ions found in the bloodstream. Chromium seems to have the highest levels reported for these intramedullary nails. Intramedullary titanium nails also increase the amount of titanium found in blood samples, but not as much as chromium. Evidently, the large surface area of the intramedullary nail exposes the bone to more titanium, thus the higher levels of serum (blood) metal. As a spine surgeon I used to never worry about this topic……now I do in a 5G world because if implanted metals leach inot the blood the radiation will affect the metal ions in our blood. I think the jury is still out on this but it is an area I am monitoring as network power density rises.

These 5G waves also have a topology that is very alien to humans and I have a sense that the topology and metals inside of us will lead to more mitochondrial diseases as time spent in these networks.  I go over that in both of the hyperlinks above.  Have a listen to them when you have a chance.  When you realize that 5G jump conducts to any conductor of electric or magnetic fields you will soon understand that this will make the time spent in the AC power grid is an added risk of metal implants in a 5G world.   

CITES 

Detection of orthopaedic implants in vivo by enhanced-sensitivity, walk-through metal detectors. J Bone Joint Surg Am. 2007 Apr;89(4):742-6.

https://www.fda.gov/Safety/MedWatch/SafetyInformation/SafetyAlertsforHumanMedicalProducts/ucm559709.htm

https://sharylattkisson.com/2017/06/08/hidden-dangers-of-mris/

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18819554

David G. Dennison, MD. Distal Radius Fractures and Titanium Volar Plates: Should We Take the Plates Out? In The Journal of Hand Surgery. January 2010. Vol. 35A. No. 1. Pp. 141-143.