Having written the previous blog post on vanishing fingerprints with some glee, I got down to thinking seriously whether it is really possible for a person to lose their fingerprints.  Curiously, I came across an article which said that a man had been retained for hours at an airport in US because the officers could not detect his fingerprints.

After a quick search for an explanation of why his fingerprints went missing, I  found the answer.  It appears that this individual travelling from Singapore had been taking a cancer drug Capecitabine (Xeloda) for years and this had caused a hand foot syndrome that resulted in the erasure of his fingerprints. A typical outcome of handfoot syndrome is flaking, peeling and cracking of the skin in the hands and foot.

My search also led me to another finding about fingerprints that was immensely interesting. It seems children’s fingerprints are not as detectable as that of adults! The finding was that children’s fingerprints have more volatile chemicals, such as free fatty acids, while adult fingerprints display longer lasting compounds.

Further investigation also revealed that there were several instances when workers who did not wear protective gloves on their hands during physical labor often lost their fingerprints.

However, I could not find a single instance wher diabetes was the cause of vanishing fingerprints. Perhaps our medical friends can share the knowledge with us if that is true.

The question that remains now–What will the Government Department do now? Do they device another kind of biometric system for these workers?  If these workers are diabetic, they are likely to have problems with their eyes too! IRIS scan may also be ruled out?