Letters to the Editor
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Icky, or live-saving necessity?
The process sounds icky -- rather than hand you a clipboard to divulge your details, a doctor scans your implanted chip and instantly has all your info at hand.
You can't fill out an intake form if you're unconsicous. These aren't useful for the average person, but for people with chronic, life-threatening conditions that are likely to lead to them becoming completely incapacitated in a short timeframe (allergies causing anaphylaxis, blood clots, Type I diabetes, etc.), a chip detailing their diagnosis, med list, physician contacts, most recent labwork, medical proxy, DNR information, and family contact information could easily save their lives. Medical bracelets have very limited space on them, and can't realistically fit more than a name, one or two meds, and a diagnosis.
I'd rather they didn't cause cancer, of course. That part really is icky.
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You could wear a bracelet with an implanted chip
Right? Then you wouldn't actually have the chip inside you, but all the information would be on you and available. That seems like a good compromise.
Or we could all just get medical bar codes...
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Not just for the unconscious
How many people accurately and completely remember their medical history? The meds you took 6 years ago, your baseline hormone levels, the tens of minor issues that might add up into a cause for concern... none of that is going to make it on to that clipboard. That isn't too say that everyone should go get chipped, but the lack of good information from medical history kills far too many people in this, and most, countries.
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Chips Ahoy
So, you get a medical chip with your data. Childhood leukemia, seizure disorder, STD from same sex partner (oopsie), arthritis, piles, vapours and spleen. All your allergies are in there.
You're in a bar, someone sits too close to you. You move. The person leaves, goes to the car and downloads your RFID number. Then, the person hacks into Google, who wants to keep all of our data because they're so unspeakably cool, and has a lot of information you don't want them to have.
You're in a job interview, you meet all the qualifications for the job, you walk really close to someone in the hallway accidentally, Oops excuse me they say. You get a letter saying they won't hire you. They won't tell you that they found out Blue Cross won't insure you. They just politely say they've already found someone, etc.
As for the cancers, it is pretty well known that lab animals are raised in such a way that strains of the animals will show familial traits. Perhaps these mice are prone to sarcoma from injections, skin trauma or foreign objects. Many cats and dogs are implanted. I believe cattle and horses are, as well. No word on an epidemic there.
I would decline a chip. A medic-alert bracelet should have that kind of information.
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These studies "show" no such thing
While they may be suggestive, these studies were not designed to test whether implanted chips actually cause cancer, and NONE of them included any control groups that had either inert objects of the same composition or nothing at all implanted. Lacking that, any statistics on the numbers of mice who did get cancer are without context and useless as proof of anything. Properly controlled studies are certainly worth doing in this case, but until those data are in, this judgement is extremely premature.
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Not peer reviewed
Why is the press giving this story so much attention? The results were "published" by the ... Associated Press ... not a scientific journal, not peer reviewed, not anything that would give it any credibility.
An earlier post already called out the lack of control groups and other aspects that are needed to put the "studies" closer to something resembling science.
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Chips are made of some combination of these:
arsenic, gallium, germanium, silicon and heavy metals like mercury, copper, titanium, chromium. Production is so dangerous that it is usually done off the continental USA because of the liability concerns due to the poisonous, toxic, noxious, and carcinogenic chemicals in use during production. In short, the poisons are so bad that I wouldn't sweat the cancer. I feel sorry for the mice.