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WORLD / Health
RFID implants in cancer fear
(Xinhua/Agencies)
Updated: 2007-09-11 15:58
BEIJING -- Wireless identification tags planted beneath the skin may
cause cancer, US media reports Monday cited medical studies as cautioning.
Wireless identification tags planted beneath the skin may cause cancer,
studies suggest. [File photo]
The RFID (radio-frequency identification) chips, first implanted in pets,
are small radio devices encoded with information about the animal and are
meant to get them home safely if lost. The chips can be read with a
remote sensor device.
Those chips are now being implanted in some people, especially
Alzheimer's patients, and encoded with their medical records.
Some 2,000 people worldwide have had them fitted, and the companies which
make them hope to see them installed in millions of patients for medical
monitoring.
But a number of studies have found disturbingly large numbers of tumours
in mice which were implanted with microchips.
Media reports said that studies in veterinary and toxicology journals
published between 1996 and 2006 found that "chipped" laboratory mice and
rats sometimes developed tumors under their skin, most of which encased
the implants.
The studies cited include: a 1998 study in Ridgefield, Conn. of 177 mice
that found an incidence of cancer that surpassed 10 percent; a 2006 study
in France of 1,260 "chipped" mice that found tumors in 4.1 percent of the
mice; and a 1997 study in Germany that found cancer in 1 percent of 4,279
chipped mice.
While the reports cautioned against using the findings to predict the
effect of implantation on human health and noted that none of the studies
included a control group of mice without implanted chips, cancer
researchers nonetheless said the findings were enough to make them wary
of RFID implants and did merit further research.
VeriChip Corp., which makes RFID implants, took issue with the studies.
"Over the last 15 years, millions of dogs and cats have safely received
an implantable microchip with limited or no reports of adverse health
reactions from this life-saving product," the company said in a statement
posted on its website.
VeriChip cited two studies that find no link between RFID implants and
cancer in mice. "Since learning of the (AP) article, we have discovered
two studies from our manufacturer... that examine microchip implants in
laboratory mice and rats and conclude that microchip implants DO NOT
cause malignant tumors."
"We recognize we have a corporate responsibility to review these studies,
to look at other studies, to do new studies if necessary, and do what it
appropriate after reviewing all of the information in all regards, and we
intend to do this," said Scott Silverman, chairman and CEO of VeriChip,
during an ABC News interview broadcast Monday.
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