Microchips May Cause Cancer

[LadySmith]

Full story here:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20643620/

Excerpt:

Updated: 7:13 a.m. PT Sept 9, 2007
When the U.S. Food and Drug Administration 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. The FDA found reasonable assurance the device was safe, and a sub-agency even called it one of 2005s top innovative technologies.
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.

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I have some questions about this.
What is it about the chips that could cause tumors?
Do the potential benefits outweigh the risks?
Did the FDA err in its approval?

[Manedwolf]

Nothing but chemical composition.

RFIDs have no power source. They're passive devices. A signal is bounced off them, the RFID returns it, using the power of the incoming signal to reflect a weak signal of its own containing a data bit.

[Nitrogen]

The chemicals used in producing microchips are known carcinogens, and are known to cause other health problems.   Chemicals like Lead, selenium Sulfide ToxFaq, and cadmium (ToxFaq can be carconigins as well as just nasty.  (Yes, selenium can be good for you, but selenium sulfide is not.)

Normally, when these types of things are implanted into the skin, they are enclosed in a capsule to keep the microchip from doing just this.  In fact, it's what they do when they "microchip" pets.

[jeepmor]

RFIDs have no power source.

That does not mean that they are not toxic or that an implant in the body passively sending out signals when pinged is not harmful.  RF frequencies are not good for the human body.  As a person who used to work on plasma etchers, I've seen RF jump out and zap people wearing wedding rings and such.  Not a direct relation due to different power levels, but the same concept.

[Manedwolf]

RFIDs have no power source.

That does not mean that they are not toxic or that an implant in the body passively sending out signals when pinged is not harmful.  RF frequencies are not good for the human body.  As a person who used to work on plasma etchers, I've seen RF jump out and zap people wearing wedding rings and such.  Not a direct relation due to different power levels, but the same concept.

Except that the amount of power hitting a RFID for the bounce is about that of the ambient amount surrounding you in the air continually for broadcast radio, television and cellular service. It's extremely weak. That's why the readers need to be so close.

Higher-power readers are used in things like an arch that cargo pallets go through, but they're still very weak.

[Firethorn]

RF frequencies are not good for the human body.

That's funny, I seem to remember reading about all sorts of studies that haven't managed to find a link between even fairly high levels of RF radiation and any diseases.

As a person who used to work on plasma etchers, I've seen RF jump out and zap people wearing wedding rings and such.  Not a direct relation due to different power levels, but the same concept.

The power level of a plasma etcher, combined with the metal of a ring, is a far different affair than the milliwatts of power expressed by these sort of devices.
My quick check on plasma etchers showed the first one in the list having a 400 watt RF generator.

Hint:  Your microwave works by RF generation in the 2.4 GHz range.  It's also likely 2-3 times as powerful as that.  It's also perfectly safe as long as you're not in it.

I'd tend to think that improper cleaning, non-medically safe materials, and wound trauma would be likelier causes of cancer than the amount of RF these devices give off.  Unlike a device like a pace-maker, these have the benefit that they can be completely sealed.

Remember all the fuss about silicon implants?  They're coming back.  The payoffs and panic ended up being based on fear-mongering more than science.

[Werewolf]

[sarcasm]Who cares if the chips contain known carcinogens. Why should the government be concerned about that? After all it will only impact a few of its subjects - errrrrrr - citizens and the rest will be much, much safer because the government and all it's lackies and stooges will always know exactly where they are.[/sarcasm]

[280plus]

It would certainly solve the Social Security shortfalls... 

[Paddy]

Microchips May Cause Cancer

Wow!  I'm glad to know that.  I was just about to get one installed so On Star could locate me if I get lost.

  

[Euclidean]

Microchips May Cause Cancer

Wow!  I'm glad to know that.  I was just about to get one installed so On Star could locate me if I get lost.

  

  I almost upchucked my Pepsi.

[tyme]

They're glass-encapsulated, and the RF emitted by the tags is very low-power; neither composition nor RF explains the observed cancers in animals.

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070909-rfid-implants-linked-to-cancer-the-lowdown.html

The data suggest that the devices foster cancer by causing inflammation of the tissues that encapsulate them. There is a large amount of scientific literature linking cancer and inflammation (the National Cancer Institute has some information on the matter). RFID tags turn out not to be the only form of animal tagging that causes cancer through inflammation; standard metallic ear tags can do so as well. That paper also notes that there have been a number of case reports where human prosthetic implants have induced cancers in the surrounding tissues.

[Fly320s]

Could it be that any foreign body that is introduced into the human body can cause the human to body to react in a manner that leads to cancer or tumor growth?

[AntiqueCollector]

The FDA in a letter pointed out some potential dangers of RFID chips, the letter can be downloaded here: http://www.spychips.com/devices/verichip-fda-report.html


Now, besides all the health issues, the whole invasion of privacy thing (sticking a device in you or an animal that can be used to track you by setting up scanners to do so like one school did, making students carry cards with chips in them and tracking them in the school, or get any sort of information about you that's stored in it) and some religious reasons (mark of the beast) is enough for me to stay away from these things...they will never chip me and I will never chip any animal I own.

[tyme]

Could it be that any foreign body that is introduced into the human body can cause the human to body to react in a manner that leads to cancer or tumor growth?

That's the implication, and it seems plausible to me.

I don't believe the assurances of sites like http://www.cancerhelp.org.uk/help/default.asp?page=5411 that autoimmune disease doesn't increase risk of cancer (which seems to contradict the glass-capsules-can-cause-cancer phenomenon).  It reeks of "we have no idea, and we don't want anyone with an autoimmune disease worrying about other stuff, so we'll say there's no connection).  In particular, what if some component of NETs (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutrophil_extracellular_traps ), as part of a localized immune response, damage host cells' DNA in a way that's not normally significant because the bacteria/virus/fungus in a typical infection ends up killing (or triggering the death of) most cells in the area?

[Firethorn]

The FDA in a letter pointed out some potential dangers of RFID chips, the letter can be downloaded here: http://www.spychips.com/devices/verichip-fda-report.html

Not to be a scary SOB, but that list of potential failures reads like some of the security analysis.  IE you sit there and list every possible problem with the device and it's usage, however remote, then you sit down and perform risk analysis.  IE it could have problems electrically - you test to make sure the voltages are low enough and the device sealed adequately to prevent it.  For the MRI - you perform tests.  It's not like the chip has to use ferrous materials, or even any metals as a large portion of it's mass.  Most of it would be plastic/glass.

For migration, stick and other such issues - standard procedure for implanting stuff.  Make sure that what you're implanting is sterilized, your needle is sterile, and that you've sterilized the injection site.  There's a risk whenever you penetrate the skin, but the risk is small for most.  After all, many people get cuts all the time and are fine.  Migration issues are an issue for training the person to perform the procedure to make sure they inject it into an appropriate spot.

I mean, half the consequences listed would also be present for the flue vaccine.