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An Associated Press article has stunned cat and other pet owners. A series of highly accredited research studies conducted over the past decade show that the same microchips used to track pets are the cause of fast-growing, malignant cancers in 1% to 10% of laboratory animals tested. Now pet owners are faced with the question of what to do.
Why do microchips cause cancer?
like dr Katherine Albrecht, consumer advocate and privacy advocate who helped investigate and uncover this story, explains what scientists believe resembles a common splinter. If you get a splinter in your finger, your body will do whatever it takes to get rid of it. The spot turns red, swells, and tries to dislodge the foreign body.
However, when a microchip is embedded deep in your cat’s or other pet’s fatty tissue, their body cannot push the chip out like a splinter. Instead, inflammation forms around the microchip. Scientists believe these inflamed cells can become cancerous and then metastasize and move around the body. What’s worse, these tumors can grow rapidly and be malignant.
What the research shows
Between 1996 and 2006, eight published veterinary and toxicology journals reported that laboratory mice and rats injected with microchips sometimes tended to develop subcutaneous “sarcomas,” or malignant tumors, around the implants. Below is a brief summary of some of the key conclusions.
- A 1998 study of 177 mice in Ridgefield, Connecticut reported a cancer incidence of just over 10 percent. The researchers described the results as “surprising”.
- A 2006 study in France found tumors in 4.1 percent of 1,260 microchipped mice. This was one of six studies in which the scientists did not detect microchip-induced cancer, instead noting the results by accident.
- In 1997, a study in Germany found cancer in 1 percent of 4,279 microchipped mice. The tumors “are clearly due to the implanted microchips,” the authors write.
What the researchers say
In examining the story, the Associated Press asked scholars to consider the available research. Specialists from some of the pre-eminent cancer institutions said the results had raised alarm.
— “Having read this information, there is absolutely no way that I could have one of these chips implanted in my skin or in any of my family members,” said Dr. Robert Benezra, director of the Cancer Biology Genetics Program at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York.
–DR. George Demetri, director of the Center for Sarcoma and Bone Oncology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, agreed. Although he said the tumor incidences were “fairly small,” the research “certainly underscored real risks” with RFID implants. In humans, sarcomas that strike connective tissue can range from highly curable to “tumors that are incredibly aggressive and can kill people in three to six months,” he said.
–At the Jackson Laboratory in Maine, a leader in mouse genetics research and the development of cancer, Dr. Oded Foreman, a forensic pathologist, also conducted the studies at the request of the AP. At first he was skeptical, suggesting that chemicals given to some of the studies might have caused cancer and skewed the results. But he took a different view after seeing that the control mice that weren’t given the chemicals also developed cancer. “That might be a small hint that something real is happening here,” he said.
— “The transponders were the cause of the tumors,” said Keith Johnson, a retired toxicology pathologist who, in a telephone interview, explained the results of a 1996 study he led at the Dow Chemical Company in Midland, Michigan.
What can cat owners do?
- Check your microchipped cat or other pet regularly for swelling or lumps, especially around the injection site. If owners or vets find anything abnormal in this area or any other area (since the chips can migrate), an x-ray or biopsy should be done.
- dr Albrecht also suggests pet owners to help her Volunteer to inform and contact animal and animal rights advocacy groups and veterinary organizations by becoming active on their website. Many of these animal-loving groups advocated pet microchipping without access to the studies mentioned above. dr Albrecht hopes public pressure will also force Verichip Corporation, the chip’s maker, to take responsibility or face a class action lawsuit.
- Report all cases of pets dying from cancer or animals cured of cancer to Dr. Albrecht at AntiChips, especially if it is known or suspected that the tumor is or was connected to a microchip. This will help further document evidence of the cancer and stop microchipping.
Sources: AntiChips.com; WashingtonPost.com
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