In case you missed it, a recent AP story details links between RFID transponders and cancer:
A series of veterinary and toxicology studies, dating to the mid-1990s, stated that [RFID] 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. ...
"There's no way in the world, having read this information, that I would have one of those chips implanted in my skin, or in one of my family members," said Dr. Robert Benezra, head of the Cancer Biology Genetics Program at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York.
The results are preliminary and it's unclear if humans would have similar reactions to implanted RFID chips, but really, wouldn't you go along with Dr. Benezra on this one? And while there's no way I'd voluntarily get one of these things implanted in my body anyway, what does this mean about the safety of RFID tags in clothing (especially given that the implanted tags associated with the tumors were apparently encased in glass)?
The RFID industry's reaction is just what you'd expect:
What is of obvious concern to the greater RFID industry is that this news will associate RFID with cancer in the minds of the general public. Look for media-savvy Albrecht to facilitate such misconceptions; she has already supplemented her preferred epithet "spy chips" with the even more scathing "cancer chips".
The question is whether people will make some sort of psychological association between cancer and human implantable chips, or cancer and the term "RFID". For the sake of broader acceptance and adoption of the technology, hopefully it will be the former.
(Hey, I already associate RFID with "privacy invasion", "Big Brother", and "corporate intrusion into every corner of human life"--so why not cancer as well?)
The "media-savvy Albrecht" they mention is Dr. Katherine Albrecht, who prompted AP to pursue this story. Along with her associate Liz McIntyre, Albrecht has been fighting the good fight around RFID and privacy protection in general for many years now (see here and here for more information). Albrecht and McIntyre are smart, well-organized, and--as this story illustrates--very effective at getting information about RFID to the public. We're lucky that people this good are working on this issue.
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