The debate continues: RFID can cause cancer, RFID cannot cause cancer

Filed in archive Healthcare on September 11, 2007

RFID seems to be always in the midst of some controversy or the other - sometimes we come across the privacy issue, then there was this security issue ushered by the virus drama and now the cyber world is full with the news of RFID causing cancer. AP came up with a story just a couple of days back linking RFID to cancer and it was based on a nine year old French bulldog named Leon who was diagnosed with tumor in 2004 and died later on. The owner of the dog blamed the RFID chip embedded in the dog for his death. The Italian researchers who examined the tissue of the dog came out with a paper in 2006 which hinted at a connection between the tumor and the embedded chip and even backed their findings by previous studies which stated that cases of tumors were even found in cats and rats which had been chipped. These tumors were witnessed in inflammation areas created as a result of the microchip.




AP took the help of some leading cancer specialists to review the research who said that this study may not stand true in case of human beings. Now a number of questions arise with respect to this study:

Why did it took so much time for the studies to get published and why did they only choose a time after California passed a bill preventing any forced implantation of RFID chips.

If you all are very much aware about medical terminology then it's a common phenomenon for inflamed tissues around foreign objects in the body to develop cancerous cells but it does not mean that RFID implants are the reason behind it for sure.

These studies are just based on tests conducted on animals and not human beings so we cannot conclude that RFID implants are unsafe for humans. If previous studies state that RFID was causing cancer then why wasn't a study conducted on human beings too. Has any person up till now been found out to suffer from cancer after being implanted with RFID tags?

Even if some say that RFID is unsafe for humans then why did FDA on first count gave approval for implantation of RFID in human beings and why weren't these studies taken into account. Probably now the ball rests in the court of FDA and it only can put this controversy to rest.

Thnx wired