Implanted Identification Microchips that Cause Cancer? Say it ain’t so!

VeriChip, maker of implantable RFID-powered identification microchips, are being accused of withholding information from the public with regards to the dark side of their “lifesaving” chips. Don’t say you haven’t been warned: the signs have been there for a decade, available for all to see. No, you needn’t be a doctor, radiologist, or nano-technician to have seen them and heeded their warning, you just had to watch a couple of episodes of one of the 90s most popular hit TV shows ever: The X-Files.

Apparently Chris Carter’s insanely-popular X-Files (and its cult following) had more than just the plot lines down right, it seems that The Truth really is out there after all! A startling article on on MSNBC today reveals that implanted “medical” microchips used for the purpose of the identification of cats, dogs, horses, and the elderly really can cause cancer after all, just like their TV counterparts.

 For those of you not yet enlightened by Chris Carter’s science-ficitional work of art, here’s the gist of what happened (which is, by no means whatsoever, to be considered a substitute to actually watching the X-Files!). In the X-Files TV series, FBI Special Agent Dana Scully (played by Gillian Anderson) was kidnapped by “aliens” who had a unique identification microchip implanted in the base of her neck. Seasons later, Agent Scully discovers the microchip and has it removed, triggering a malignant nasopharengeal tumor to develop (in her nasal cavity). Later on in the storyline, Agent Scully’s cancer is healed by finding a replacement microchip (and we later discover that the microchip can cure cancer and most other bodily illnesses).

Moral of the story: the truth is out there – you just need to know where to look. On this particular occasion, the topic of interest is a tiny microchip (implanted at the base of the neck!!) used to store medical & identification information on pets and humans. It’s about the size of a single grain of rice (see picture at top), and can be scanned by moving an electronic (RFID) scanner across the skin, where the wireless signal can be read.

A good idea at its core, it was approved by the FDA for use on human beings in 2005 (previously being limited to pets and other animals), and heralded as a great accomplishment and time/life-saver for those who really need it.

It turns out that the manufacturer didn’t let on a supposedly unimportant fact: it caused cancer in the rats it was originally tested on – something discovered long before in the mid-1990s, in separate studies conducted by toxicologists and veterinarians.

It’s widely known that many X-Files episodes, like Law & Order and other TV Show series, have some elements loosely based on real-world rumors & behaviors, with a good dash of imagination added to the mix. But it seems that even the “out there” plot lines for the X-Files mytharc episodes couldn’t keep up with real life, with over 2,000 chips already implanted in humans and millions [sic] of domesticated pets and animals across the country.