Will NAIS Cause Cancer?

There are a number of reasons to dislike NAIS, but the latest is very concerning and is a serious health threat to any animal injected with the RFID chip. Since the chips have also been approved for injection into people the risk is even more frightening. The FDA approved the chip for implanting into humans without looking at any data related to potential side-effects. Recently a number of senior citizens had the chip implanted at a nursing home in Florida "for their own safety". However, if these reports are correct, they could have just condemned them.

From the website www.antichips.com

As the AP will report, 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, the researchers said.

Albrecht first became aware of the microchip-cancer link when she and her "Spychips" co-author, Liz McIntyre, were contacted by a pet owner whose dog had died from a chip-induced tumor. Albrecht then found medical studies showing a causal link between microchip implants and cancer in other animals. Before she brought the research to the AP's attention, the studies had somehow escaped public notice.

A four-month AP investigation turned up additional documents, several of which had been published before VeriChip's parent company, Applied Digital Solutions, sought FDA approval to market the implant for humans. The VeriChip received FDA approval in 2004 under the watch of then Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson who later joined the
company's board.

While some question the accuracy of these claims of cancer, it is still troubling. Since chips are being implanted into dogs and cats many wonder why we aren't seeing a big increase in cancer in these animals. Well there is an answer. First, the technology hasn't been around that long and there is no central reporting of cancer in pets like there is for humans. Second, the frequency is only triggered and emits radiation when scanned. This isn't that frequently, usually only when the pet strays. However, under NAIS there would be frequent triggers and it would emit the signal (read radiation here!) more frequently. Also, equine live longer than dogs, cats and mice meaning over their lifetime they would be exposed for a longer periods of time. Meaning that perhaps they wouldn't develop cancer until their later years costing owners even more money in their pet's declining years. In humans it would depend on how often the chip is scanned or triggered by external events, but that is a very concerning thing for them since the chip can be triggered by things like microwaves, cell phones and other devices. Since the chip for people are being marketed as a way to have a more centralized health record or a way to track them this could cause the device to be triggered more than our dogs and cats.

Whatever your position on NAIS is this information should raise concerns. If the chip can potentially cause cancer in our animals is it worth any perceived benefit of NAIS? I personally have 2 dogs that love to roam and I swear they are related to Houdini and can escape any confinement. I considered having them chipped in case they were to lose their way home, after reading this information and listening to some experts speak on the chip I have decided that I will stick to the tags on their collars. I will not have them chipped and I certainly will not chip any of my horses. I do not want them to suffer from such a terrible disease as cancer.

Of course this is all my opinion and lacking any long term studies to show that they absolutely do or do not cause cancer I would rather err on the side of caution because there is enough evidence to say that it is a possibility and there is not enough of any benefit to me to take any chances with my animals. I would say that is a call we all have to make for ourselves, but we all also have the right to make an informed decision and up until now that has been denied us. If NAIS is fully implemented and, as I have read elsewhere when does any governmental program not become bigger and more mandatory, we could all have that decision taken from us.

So, back to the question will NAIS cause cancer? At this point the answer is possibly.