RFID implants linked to malignant tumor

12 September, 2007

The potential risks of implanting radio-frequency identification devices (RFID) have come to light.

RFID is an automatic identification method, relying on storing and remotely retrieving data using devices called RFID tags or transponders.

An RFID tag is an object that can be applied to or incorporated into a product, animal, or person for the purpose of identification using radio waves. Some tags can be read from several meters away and beyond the line of sight of the reader.

The news agency Associated Press has produced an extensive report that cites a range of animal studies that have linked similar devices to cancers in experimental animals, such as mice and rats.

The report details how numerous studies on RFID implants in animal test subjects, starting in the mid-1990s, revealed that the implants led to a significant increase in growth of malignant tumors.

Keith Johnson, a retired toxicological pathologist who led one of these studies, in 1996 at Dow Chemical Company, told the Associated Press that he had no doubts about whether RFID was to blame for the increased incidence of cancer. The report quotes him as stating that “the transponders were the cause of the tumors.”

The report raises both scientific and ethical issues. The ethical questions focus on the initial approval of these devices, which occurred while Tommy Thompson was in charge of United States Health and Human Services, a parent department of the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Five months after Thompson left government service, the Associated Press reports, he joined the board of the company that produces the RFID devices. That position came with a substantial number of shares in the company. Attempts to obtain the safety information on the device that went into the approval process produced no documents.

However, one company that produces similar devices intended to track research animals has made available a list of references that includes a number of studies that link the use of implants to the development of cancers at the site of the implant. Though the development and progression of cancer in mice has some differences compared to humans, mice still remain the primary model system for understanding cancer.

The data collected by the Associated Press 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.

RFID tags are not the only form of animal tagging that causes cancer through inflammation; standard metallic ear tags can do so as well. There have been a number of case reports where human prosthetic implants have induced cancers in the surrounding tissues.

Since the implants promote cancer by irritating their surrounding tissues and that humans appear to suffer from these sorts of cases, there is clearly reason for concern. Still, it is possible that different RFID designs may have a greater or lesser tendency to induce irritation, and more detailed studies are needed on this.

Currently about 2,000 people worldwide have received RFID chips implants, according to VeriChip, the leading manufacturer of FDA-approved RFID implants, including a couple who were ordered to do so by their employer. VeriChip also sells RFID chips for animals.

Meanwhile, numerous studies linking RFID implants to cancer in animals are gaining significant attention in the United States.

In early September 2007, Dailytech reported that California’s state senate had blocked employers from requiring their employees to get ‘chipped’, that is, get implanted with an RFID chip that would allow for radio identification and tracking.