Word: chipping
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...this summer, a large pilot program involving hundreds of human patients got under way at the Alzheimer's Community Care agency in West Palm Beach, Florida. The maker of the RFID chips used in the program, VeriChip Corporation, a subsidiary of the Delray Beach-based Applied Digital Solutions, is funding the initiative and wants to market its tags to the roughly 45 million high-risk patients in the U.S. with diseases such as Alzheimer's, diabetes, cancer and heart disease. The company says these patients can benefit from having instant and accurate access to medical records, which the chip would...
...well as VIP patrons of a Barcelona nightclub and investigators requiring special access to confidential drug-trafficking case files at the Ministry of Justice in Mexico. Over the next two years, VeriChip and Alzheimer's Community Care plans to inject 110 patients with dementia or Alzheimer's with the chip as well. But VeriChip came under fire in September - shortly after the first 90 or so Alzheimer's patients received its chips in Florida - after an AP report unearthed studies suggesting the chips may cause cancer in laboratory animals. Within two weeks of the AP report, VeriChip's stock plummeted...
...fact, there has been one case of cancer - in a French bulldog named Leon - according to a 2006 study in Veterinary Pathology. But it remains unclear whether the cancer was caused by a microchip or as the result of an injection, or who the maker of the chip was. The dog's tumor was removed in 2004, and a later examination found no recurrence. It seems that no one notified the FDA about Leon, but his case doesn't appear to worry the agency, as evident from a statement it issued when the AP brought Leon's story to light...
Meanwhile, a handful of concerned pet owners have expressed interest in removing RFID chips from their furry companions, but VeriChip hasn't heard of anyone doing so yet. The AVMA officially counsels against removing the chip, while assuring pet owners it will continue to monitor the situation. "At this point we do not recommend that people should stop microchipping," says Dr. Rosemary LoGiudice, a veterinarian and assistant director with the AVMA. "We are actively watching. For the number of animals that are said to actually have microchips, when you consider the number of animals that have been microchipped and returned...
With its purchase of Numico, which Mills criticizes as too expensive, Danone is betting that demand for healthy food is going to outpace consumers' desire for another chocolate-chip cookie. "We were more and more convinced that due to health issues, long-term-speaking, cookies were going to be in trouble," says Sacchi. He cites increasing health awareness, increasing government regulation, increasing focus on disease prevention, the changing needs of aging populations, particularly in Western Europe, which accounts for 40% of Danone's sales, and the spread of diet-related health problems as factors. "In some countries," says Sacchi, "obesity...