Implanted RFID Chips Linked To Cancer 247
An anonymous reader writes "The Associated Press is reporting that microchip implants have induced cancer in laboratory animals and dogs. A series of research articles spanning more than a decade found that mice and rats injected with glass-encapsulated RFID transponders developed malignant, fast-growing, lethal cancers in up to 1% to 10% of cases. The tumors originated in the tissue surrounding the microchips and often grew to completely surround the devices. To date, about 2,000 RFID devices have been implanted in humans worldwide, according to VeriChip Corp." We recently discussed the California ban on companies requiring such implants.
Someone better tell Carrie from MythBusters (Score:3, Interesting)
Makes me think twice about wanting one for my dog. . .
No talk about RFI (Score:2, Interesting)
This may answer the issue of cell phone cancer.
Of course, the cell phone company will claim that it only happens if you have the phone (headset) to your ear for 6 hours a day. And of course, the manual says that they only recommend no more than 4 hours of use a month.
Nothing fishy here (Score:5, Interesting)
Standard Practise (Score:2, Interesting)
We make compromises on health all the time for convenience and aesthetics -- while most cosmetics are not technically harmful, spraying aluminium on your underarms* or using make-up is not going to give you health benefits. It's easier to take the car to work not cycle or walk (unless you walk down the same road).
*No, it's washing which is the healthy part to not smelling.
The only reason this is even news is that the big C is involved. We "civilised" people make hundreds of choices at the expense of our long term physical or mental health and this is not a novel situation. It will go ahead anyway if the benefits are great and people aren't instantly terrified of the c-word, else it will die out.
I still don't get it (Score:5, Interesting)
BTW, here's an interesting Wired article [wired.com] on the subject.
Normal activity for the body (Score:4, Interesting)
In fact, I have talked to several people that knew people that had tumors for many, many years and never had any trouble, but after their doctors talked them into removing the tumors and doing radiation/chemo treatment, they were dead within a year. Things that make you go hmmmmm.
So a tumor around a foreign body like that doesn't shock me too much.
Re:No talk about RFI (Score:5, Interesting)
That's because they assume their readers aren't idiots...
RFID chips don't emit electromagnetic radiation, they only (really) reflect it. What's more, the energy levels are far lower than any number of other day-to-day activities, in the same frequency ranges as other signals all around us, and RFID chips are only scanned for a couple seconds at a time, and only on occasion.
If the small and occasional radiation from RFID chips could cause cancer, we'd all be lucky to survive for a few months after birth before dying of cancer.
Re:No talk about RFI (Score:4, Interesting)
On the bright side... (Score:3, Interesting)
Your comment kinda reminds me of the asbestos revelations... there was a time when asbestos was put into cigarette filters as an advertised health feature.
Regards.
Serious question (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Seems like a planted story to me.. (Score:3, Interesting)
Call me crazy, but when I don't want sugar... I drink and eat things that aren't sweet. Mindboggling, I know...
I'll pass on the RFID for a while, too. I like my stuff "Tested on Humans" (TM), and there seem to be plenty of other people out there happily being my my guinea pigs.
A Setback for Bioactive Glass...? (Score:2, Interesting)
New developments in making the materials with porous structures to stimulate bone growth have brought a spurt in the use of it as graft material and encouraged investigations into other medical uses, but I wonder now whether it and other silicates as a class pose a significant cancer risk, themselves.
I've seen modblog (Score:4, Interesting)
Quite a few people there have implants (horns, weird shapes in the forearm, etc.) and there hasn't been any warning there of increased cancer risk. The body-mod crowd is generally about doing crazy and interesting stuff that's ultimately safe.
Of course, these things are inert in EM fields, unlike RFID chips. I know they don't transmit, but absorbing energy from a field has to generate a small amount of heat that's channelled or dissipated into the surrounding tissue, right?
Re:No control group? WTF? Read TFA? (Score:3, Interesting)
The real reason religious fundamentalists think science is pseudo-religious is because too many "scientists" believe the advance of scientific knowledge is limited to the purposeful reporting of the results of studies guided by the scientific method. Too often we forget that Darwin wasn't out there conducting a lab experiment; he was in the REAL world, observing real things. The real essence of science is the observation that leads to a "that's odd" remark, or an experiment where the operator goes from "oops. The culture spoiled" to "that's interesting" like Fleming did. The results of experiments under controlled conditions are just half of science. The rest is the observation of things outside the experiment, things that could lead to entire new realms of empirical and experimental investigation.
Re:Seems like a planted story to me.. (Score:3, Interesting)
For evidence of the delusional nature of Betty's claims, check out http://www.snopes.com/medical/toxins/aspartame.as
hard to believe (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Seems like a planted story to me.. (Score:4, Interesting)
My knowledge is personal. I am one of at least 10% of the population with a sensitivity to Aspartame.
Within 30 minutes after drinking a can of soda sweetened with Nutrasweet I get a severe headache, the skin on my face and upper body turns beet red and gets oily because of excessive sebaceous gland activity. Several people have tested this response (some deliberately, some by accident) by giving me candy sweetened with Nutrasweet.
I discovered the link between these symptoms and Aspartame by accident. I had my own computer consulting business between 1980 and 1997. In 1987 I was asked by an old college acquaintances who had been hired as academic dean at a small private college in the central part of this state to come and teach science and math. I agreed as long as I could continue with my consulting business on the side. Later in that year the college pres heard about my consulting after I consulted with the city that the college was in and asked me to computerize the college. I agreed but the load rose to about 70-80 hours per week. In addition commuted 55 miles a day from my home. To avoid getting sleepy during classes and programming sessions I began drinking Dr Pepper. To avoid gaining weight due to the sugar content in a can of Dr. Pepper I decided to drink diet Dr. Pepper. Even though I hold a Master's Degree in Biochemistry, with major hours in Chemistry, Physics, Math and Biology (I was a "professional student"
I resigned from the college and decided to take six months off. I also started drinking tea instead of diet sodas. Within a few weeks the headaches vanished, the red and oily skin disappeared and my mood improved considerable. My memory, however, never came back to its former level, which was semi-photographic. One day about three months later my wife came home from shopping with a carton of diet Dr Pepper because she thought I'd like a can once in a while. I drank a can and within 30 minutes the symptoms I had been having for several years reappeared. Within 24 hours they were gone. A few days later I tried another can and the symptoms appeared again. I set up double blind tests with regular and diet sodas and established to my satisfaction that it was indeed the diet sodas causing the problems. Since then I have avoided anything with Aspartame in it and the symptoms have never reappeared.
In 1992, IIRC, I was on Compuserve and began searching the web to find out Aspartame. The articles and research I found then settled the issue in my mind. I met on line a lady by the name of Mary Stoddard, IIRC, who had experienced problems similar to mine was was running a website on Compuserve where she posted lots of stories like mine of people who had problems with
Government Corruption at its Finest (Score:2, Interesting)
>of VeriChip's approval, was headed by Tommy Thompson. Two weeks after the device's
>approval took effect on Jan. 10, 2005, Thompson left his Cabinet post, and within
>five months was a board member of VeriChip Corp. and Applied Digital Solutions.
>He was compensated in cash and stock options.
Sounds like Tommy boy was on the take for quite some time.
FDA approvals are not granted overnight -- they can take many years. For him to claim he never heard of the company means he was either lying or not doing his job overseeing the FDA by being ingnorant of such a major case.
Of course, nothing will ever be done -- same as in most similar cases...
Re:Seems like a planted story to me.. (Score:2, Interesting)