Spy chips may cause cancer: study
p2pnet news | WiFi:- ” …I just got cancer in my arm,” posted a p2pnet reader back in February, 2006.
“Could it have been that RFID implant?
“Nah …….”
But although the US Food and Drug Administration found “reasonable assurance” the spy-chip was safe and a sub-agency even called it one of 2005’s top ‘innovative technologies’, there may be something in the p2pnet reader’s half-serious concern.
“When the approved implanting microchips in humans, the manufacturer said it would save lives, letting doctors scan the tiny transponders to access patients’ medical records almost instantly, says Associated Press, going on:
But neither the company nor the regulators publicly mentioned this: A series of veterinary and toxicology studies, dating to the mid-1990s, stated that chip implants had “induced” malignant tumors in some lab mice and rats.
“The transponders were the cause of the tumors,” said Keith Johnson, a retired toxicologic pathologist, explaining in a phone interview the findings of a 1996 study he led at the Dow Chemical Co. in Midland, Mich.
Leading cancer specialists reviewed the research for The Associated Press and, while cautioning that animal test results do not necessarily apply to humans, said the findings troubled them. Some said they would not allow family members to receive implants, and all urged further research before the glass-encased transponders are widely implanted in people.
Some 2,000 of the Radio Frequency IDentification spy chips have been implanted in humans worldwide, says one of the leading makers, VeriChip Corp, and parent company Applied Digital Solutions.
“We stand by our implantable products which have been approved by the FDA and/or other U.S. regulatory authorities,” Scott Silverman, VeriChip Corp. chairman and chief executive officer, told AP.
But Amal isn’t worried. On his site, he says he has two RFID implants, one in each hand (Flickr pic on the right), going on:
His left hand contains a 3mm by 13mm EM4102 glass RFID tag that was implanted by a cosmetic surgeon using a scalpel to make a very small cut, into which the implant was placed.
His right hand contains a 2mm by 12mm Philips HITAG 2048 S implant with crypto-security features and 255 bytes of read/write memory storage space. It was implanted by a family doctor using an Avid injector kit like the ones used on pets.
He can access his front door, car door, and log into his computer using his implants, and has written a book called RFID Toys, which details how to build these and other RFID enabled projects.
That may make Amal happy, but he might not be quite so upbeat if he has to undergo a medical procedure such as an MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) scan.
CASPIAN’s (Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering) Katherine Albrecht believes VeriChip implants expose people who have them in their bodies to electrical hazards, MRI incompatibility, adverse tissue reaction, and migration of the implanted transponder, to name only a few of the potential risks.
“According to the FDA`s Primer on Medical Device Interactions with Magnetic Resonance Imaging Systems, ‘electrical currents may be induced in conductive metal implants’ that can cause ‘potentially severe patient burns‘,” Albrecht pointed out.
But Mexico`s attorney general Rafael Macedo de la Concha isn’t worried.
Back in 2005. He had a RFID spy chip embedded in his arm, as did people in his office, as a security measure.
Stay tuned
Also See:
p2pnet – Spy chips in employees` arms, February 10, 2006
Associated Press – Chip Implants Linked to Animal Tumors, September 9, 2007
Amal – Amal’s RFID implant page
potentially severe patient burns – Spy chip health hazards, October 22, 2004
embedded in his arm – US to adopt electronic ID cards, February 11, 2007
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September 9th, 2007 at 10:57 am
There is many ways foreigns objects inplented in organisms can cause problems. Release of chemicals from the glass, of course migration, reaction to foreign body and of course heating in intense magnetic field such as MRI and potential hazard near a leaking microwave and so on. I will never let anyone put a foreign part in my body unless I have too for medical reason. Don’t do anything to your body unless there is a good medical reason to do it. It’s like getting cosmetic surgery breast implant and so one. This is not a smart move!
September 9th, 2007 at 7:54 pm
Personally, if I was implanted with something against my will, I rest easy knowing that all it takes is ripping the flash bulb out of a flash camera and wiring up 10 or 20 turns of nice thick wire, then snapping the “flash” near the implant to blow it away forever.